Top Five Places to Visit

Bangladesh National Museum

Bangladesh National Museum is the national museum of Bangladesh. The museum is well organized and chronologically placed in several departments: Ethnography and Decorative Arts, History and Classical Art, Natural History, Modern and World Civilizations. The museum also has a well-stocked conservation laboratory. Nalini Kantha Bhattassari served as the first curator of the museum from 1914 to 1947.

Sonargaon

Sonargaon is one of the old capitals of the historic region of Bengal and was the administrative center of East Bengal. It was also a river port. Its hinterland was the center of Bengal’s muslin trade and was home to a large number of weavers and artisans. According to ancient Greek and Roman accounts, there was an emporium in this hinterland that archaeologists identified with the ruins of Wali Bateshwar. The region was the stronghold of the Vanga, Samatatha, Sena and Deva dynasties.

Sonargaon attracts many tourists in Bangladesh every year. Besides the Bangladesh Folk Crafts Foundation, there are various archaeological sites, Sufi and Hindu temples, historical mosques and tombs.

Shahid Minar

On 21 and 22 February 1952, Pakistani police opened fire on Bengali protesters demanding official status in their native language, Bengali, students and political activists from Dhaka University and Dhaka Medical College. The massacre took place near Dhaka Medical College and Ramna Park in Dhaka. A makeshift memorial was erected on 23 February  by students from Dhaka Medical College and other educational institutions, but was soon destroyed by the Pakistani police on 26 February .

The language movement gained momentum and after a long struggle, Bengali was given official status (along with Urdu) in Pakistan in 1956. In memory of the dead, Shahid Minar was designed and built by Bangladeshi sculptor Hamidur Rahman in collaboration with Novella Ahmed. Martial law delayed construction, but the monument was finally completed in 1963 and stood until the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971, when it was completely destroyed during Operation Searchlight. It was rebuilt after Bangladesh gained independence later that year. Expanded in 1983.

Lalbag Fort

Lalbagh Fort (also Fort Aurangabad) is an unfinished 17th-century Mughal fort complex situated on the Buriganga River in southwest Dhaka, Bangladesh. Construction was started in 1678 AD by Mughal Subahdar Muhammad Azam Shah, who was the son of Emperor Aurangzeb and later the Emperor himself. His successor, Shaista Khan, did not continue the work, although he remained in Dhaka until 1688.

The fort was never completed and was not manned for a long time. Much of the complex has been remodeled and now faces modern buildings.

Ramna Park

Ramna Park is a large park and recreational area in the center of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. With a pond near the center, this forest park is one of the most beautiful areas in Dhaka. Islamabad’s diplomatic district is named Ramna in honor of Ramna Park. This was when Bangladesh was East Pakistan and Pakistan’s newly established capital, Islamabad, was divided into different sectors named after different states such as Shalimar and Ramna Bengal, representing Punjab.