Located at about 320 km southwest of Dhaka by road Khulna is the country's third
biggest industrial city and a thriving inland port. Khulna is also easily accessible
(58 km by road) from Jessore which is 20 minutes by air from Dhaka. Khulna serves
as the gateway to the sea port of Mongla and the Sundarbans , the beautiful forest.
A paddle-steamer journey between Dhaka and Khulna on the rivers running through
the green countryside is an unforgettable experience.
The Sundarbans Spread over an area of about 6000 sq km of deltaic swamps
along the coastal belt of Khulna district, the Sundarbans is the home of Royal Bengal
Tigers. The dense, evergreen forests of the Sundarbans are criss-crossed by a network
of rivers and creeks. Often swimming tigers in rivers and basking crocodiles in
the sun on riverside can be seen. The Sundarbans is also the natural habitat of
spotted deer, jungle fowls, wild boars, lizards, rhesus monkeys and innumerable
varieties of beautiful birds. The Sundarbans is the largest Mangrove forest in the
world.
Shat Gambuj Mosque, Bagerhat About 30 km away from Khulna City is the place
Bagerhat. The place was inside the inhospitable Mangrove forest of the Sundarbans
near the coast of Bay of Bengal. A General, later known to be a saint named Khan
Jahan Ali came here from Delhi. He was the earliest torch-bearer of Islam in the
south of Indian Subcontinent. He laid the nucleus of an affluent city at Bagerhat
in the mid-fifteenth century, during the reign of Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah
(14421459). He adorned his city with numerous mosques, tanks, roads and other public
buildings, the spectacular ruins of which are focused around the most imposing and
largest multi-domed mosque in Bangladesh, known as the Shat-Gambuj Masjid. The stately
fabric of the monument stands on the eastern bank of a vast sweet-water tank, clustered
around by the foliage of a low-lying countryside, characteristics of a sea-coast
landscape. Nearby is the shrine of this saint flanked by a vast tank , also dug
by him. A couple of crocodiles can be found in this tank which are believed to be
cursed by the saint and have been living for several hundred years.
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