Bagerhat District

Bagerhat District (বাগেরহাট, pron: bageɾɦaʈ) is a district in south-western Bangladesh. It is a part of the Khulna Division. Bagerhat district has a total area of 3959.11 square kilometres. It is bounded by Gopalganj District and Narail District on the north, The Bay of Bengal on the south, Gopalganj District, Pirojpur District and Barguna District on the east and Khulna District on the west. Main rivers of the district are Panguchi, Daratana, Madhumati River, Pasur River, Haringhata, Mongla River, Baleshwar, Bangra and Goshairkhali. Bagerhat city is famous for its mosques. Muslim Saint Khan Jahan Ali founded this town. He was a saint of the 15th century, possibly of Turkic origin. At the time of his reign, Bagerhat was a part of the Sundarbans. He cleared the forest and made it habitable. He named it "Khalifabad". He erected many official buildings to run his administration. He also built many mosques and dug tanks. The buildings erected by him are now all in ruins. The city of Bagerhat has been given the status of a World Heritage Site. This honor was conferred by UNESCO in 1973. Khan was a military general that was appointed to be the leader of the city and was greatly respected. Some people even viewed him as a god-like being. He had a deep connection to this land because of his journey from Barobazar to the Bagerhat District where along the way he created roads and river networks later developing an entire community and being a leader. In his practice of Sufism, he was recognized for his ability to convert locals to his personal beliefs. It is still questioned what his true intentions were in establishing the mosque city. But most people believe that he wanted to bring people to this place away from all that is negative and find true peace. Khan is looked up to even today in Bangladesh and archaeologists have developed monuments for him. His first settlement in Barobazar was a Hindu-Buddhist town named Champanagar, which was named after the saints that came before him.