‘Heritage’ is what we inherit
from the past, live with them in the present and then pass on to our children
or future generation. Our unique source of life and inspiration is our cultural
and natural heritage. When we speak of ‘World Heritage’, it indicates places
and sites that we got from the past and pass on to the future generation of the
entire world.
The ‘Shat Gambuj Mosque’ in
Bagerhat is such a heritage. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.
Originally, the historic Mosque City
was known as ‘Khalifatabad’. It is situated at the outskirts of Bagerhat town
not very far from the dense mangrove forest of the Sundarbans. Khalifatabad was
a Muslim colony. It was founded by the Turkish general, a saint warrior Ulugh
Khan Jahan in the 15th century. The infrastructure of the city
reveals significant technical skills in many mosques as well as early Islamic
monuments.Baked bricks are used for the construction of the buildings. The planning of the city is
distinctly dominated by Islamic architecture and the decorations are a
combination of Mughal and Turkish architecture.
KhanJahan built a network of
roads, bridges public buildings and reservoirs to make the city habitable.
There are about 360 mosques in the city. Among them the most remarkable is the multi-domed
Shat Gombuj Mosque. The mosque is unique in the sense that it has 60 pillars
that support the roof, with 77 low height domes. The 4 towers at 4 corners have
smaller domes on the roof as well. The vast prayer hall has 11 arched door ways
on the east and 7 each on the north and south for light and ventilation. It has
7 aisles running along the length of the mosque and 11 deep curves between the
slender stone columns. These columns support the curving arches created by the
domes. The thickness of the arches is 6 feet and have slightly narrowing hollow
and round wall.
The west wall in the interior
has 11 mihrabs’ (niche in mosque pointing towards Makkah). These mihrabs are
decorated with stonework and terracotta. The floor of the mosque is made
of brick.
Besides being used as a
prayer hall, Khan Jahan used the mosque as his court also . Today, it is one of
the greatest tourist attractions and one of the best architectural beauties of
Bangladesh.
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