Mosque City of Bagerhat in Bangladesh
The Mosque City of Bagerhat is one of the three World Heritage Sites in Bangladesh. The historic city is located within Bagerhat District in south-west Bangladesh. It was founded by Turkish general Ulugh Khan Jahan in the early 15th century. Originally this ancient city was known as Khalifatabad. The city is renowned for its large concentration of mosques and Islamic monuments. There are more than fifty monuments that are catalogued as part of the citation by the UNESCO World Heritage List. Some of those included are the Shatgombuj Mosque, mausoleum of Khan Jahan, the mosques of Singar, Bibi Begni, Reza Khoda and Zindavir.
The Sixty Dome Mosque or more commonly known as Shait Gumbad Mosque or Saith Gunbad Masjid is the largest historical mosque in Bangladesh and one of the impressive structures inside the Mosque City of Bagerhat. Built in the 15th century by Khan Jahan Ali, the mosque has walls that are unusually thick, has tapered brick in the Tughlaq style and a hut-shaped roofline. There are over seventy low domes while the interior is divided into many aisles and bays by slender columns which culminate in numerous arches that support the roof. It has more than sixty pillars with its eighty- one gambuj or domes. Seventy seven domes are over the roof and four smaller ones over the four corner towers. The mosque is decorated mostly with terracotta and bricks. This mosque has been used as a prayer mosque, an assembly hall on early times of Muslims and as Madrasa.
Binat Bibi Mosque is said to have been built in 1454 by Bakht Binat, the daughter of Marhamat during the rule of Sultan Mahmud Shah I. The mosque is a square, single-dome mosque that measures 12 square feet internally with a single hemispherical dome atop the square room. The ornaments inside the mosque are modest and the building is coated with plaster. The pre-Mughal features included the curved cornices and battlements, corner octagonal turrets, and arches on the south, north and eastern sides. The 600 year old mosque is in danger of being demolished to give way to renovations.