Dhaka

Why Dhaka works

Dhaka is among the most densely populated cities on Earth, and nowhere is that intensity more visible than in Old Dhaka, where narrow lanes thread between centuries-old buildings, the Buriganga River teems with cargo boats and passenger ferries, and an estimated hundreds of thousands of cycle rickshaws — more than any other city in the world — give the old quarter its distinctive constant ring of bells. Lalbagh Fort, an incomplete 17th-century Mughal fortress complex, offers a genuinely tranquil escape within the old city, its gardens, mausoleum and mosque never finished after the death of the Mughal governor's daughter, for whom the fort's central tomb was built. Ahsan Manzil, the pink-domed former palace of the Nawab of Dhaka overlooking the Buriganga, now houses a museum on 19th-century Bengali aristocratic life. Sadarghat, Dhaka's chaotic river port, remains one of the world's busiest inland waterway terminals, its multi-storey passenger launches departing daily for destinations across the delta, and simply watching the controlled chaos of loading and departure is among the city's most vivid experiences. Star Mosque, its exterior covered in mosaic star motifs made from broken Japanese and English china, and the National Parliament building, designed by Louis Kahn as one of the 20th century's most significant works of modernist architecture, round out a city whose intensity rewards visitors willing to embrace it rather than avoid it.

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