Sandwip

Sandwip (Shondip) is an island located along the southeastern coast of Bangladesh in the Chattogram District. Along with the island of Urir Char,Jahajjar Char and those are the part of the Sandwip Upazila. Sandwip is located in the north-east of the Bay of Bengal, near the port city of Chittagong. It is close to the mouth of the Meghna River in the Bay of Bengal and is separated from the Chittagong coast by Sandwip Channel. It has a population of nearly 700,000. There are fifteen wards, 62 mahallas and 34 villages on Sandwip Island. The island is long and wide. The island is bounded by Companiganj on the north; the Bay of Bengal on the south; Sitakunda, Mirsharai, and Sandwip Channel on the east; and the Noakhali Sadar, Hatiya and Meghna estuaries; on the west. Some sources claim Sandwip island is around 3000 years old, and was a part of the Samatata realm. The sources state that Sandwip was originally connected to Chittagong by land and was disconnected by natural disasters. The island was inhabited by people even before Noakhali. Sandwip is mentioned in scholarly sources such as Tansi's report Lower Gangas in 150, The Baros Map in 1560, Sanchan the Abevel's drawing map, and the Anvel Curt's drawing map in 1752. Arab merchants began trading in the area since very early on. In the 14th century, a Sufi from Afghanistan called Sultan Balkhi visited the island and lived there for a few years. In the 16th century, the island became an important source of salt for Bengal. In the 1560s, a traveller from Venice called Caesar Frederick was the first European to write about Sandwip. Returning homeward from Pegu, he was caught in a typhoon whilst sailing from Chittagong to Cochin. After being tossed about for some days, his ship sighted an island and landed. He wrote: "We found it a place inhabited, and, to my judgment, the fertilest island in all the world; the which is divided into two parts by a channel which passeth between it. With great trouble we brought our ship into the same channel, which parteth the island at flowing water.