Bagerhat is a place that makes you stop and wonder how a city of mosques ended up in the swamps of the Ganges delta. In the fifteenth century, a Muslim general and saint named Khan Jahan Ali came to this region, cleared the forest, dug ponds and roads and built a settlement that he called Khalifatabad. The brick mosques, tombs and bridges he and his followers built still stand, and UNESCO listed the site in 1985.
The most famous building is the Shait Gumbad Mosque, the Sixty Dome Mosque, though it actually has eighty-one, seventy-seven of them small and squat across the roof. Its thick brick walls, terracotta decoration and dark, cool interior make it one of the most atmospheric buildings in Bangladesh. The tomb of Khan Jahan Ali himself stands a short distance away beside a large pond full of crocodiles, which locals say are descended from the saint's own, and which visitors are asked not to disturb. The style is distinctive, with curved cornices that imitate the thatched roofs of Bengal, and it shows how Islamic architecture adapted to a wet, green climate.
The landscape is flat, humid and full of water. Rice paddies, ponds, palms and bamboo groves fill the horizon, and the Sundarbans mangrove forest, home of the Bengal tiger, is a few hours to the south. The heat is heavy and the air is damp, and the monsoon, from June to September, brings flooding and heavy rain. The best time to visit is the dry season, from November to February, when mornings are cool and the sky is clear.
Riding in Bangladesh needs patience. The roads are crowded with buses, trucks, rickshaws, bicycles and people, and the driving style is bold. On the route from Dhaka, the opening of the Padma Bridge in 2022 removed the old ferry crossing and made the trip far quicker, but it is still a long day. Bagerhat is a large town with fuel and plenty of food, with hearty curries and fresh fish. Take your shoes off at the mosque, and dress modestly.