Museum and gallery, Bagerhat
Bagerhat Museumবাগেরহাট জাদুঘর
- Time needed
- Half an hour.
- Cost
- ৳15 for adults, ৳5 for school students, under-fives free; ৳50 SAARC and ৳100 other foreign visitors.
A small archaeology museum beside the Sixty Dome Mosque: inscriptions, pottery, terracotta and the story of Khalifatabad in three galleries.
Plan your visit
- Opening
- Summer 10:00–18:00, winter 9:00–17:00, with a half-hour break at 13:00; closed Sunday, opens at 14:00 on Monday, closed 12:30–15:00 on Friday.
About
Before you walk the mosques, half an hour here puts them in order. The museum was built by the Department of Archaeology with UNESCO in 1995 and opened in 2001, a low building in the mosque's own compound. Three galleries hold what the excavations turned up: Arabic and Persian inscriptions, the ornamental bricks and terracotta plaques that once dressed the mosque walls, glazed plates, storage jars, water vessels, cowrie shells that served as money, and a model of the mosque city showing how the roads, tanks and buildings sat together before the forest covered them. Photographs on the walls set Bagerhat beside the other great brick monuments of Bangladesh.
It is small and plainly lit, and that is its charm: you can see everything in one unhurried loop and come out knowing what a mihrab is, why the domes are low, and who Khan Jahan was.
Getting there: In the Sixty Dome Mosque compound, at its south-east corner on the old Rupsha road.
Things to do
- Study the model of Khalifatabad to see how far the city once spread.
- Look closely at the terracotta plaques: the same rosettes and scrolls you'll find on the mosque walls outside.
Good to know
- Check the day: it is closed on Sunday and opens late on Monday.
- Tickets are at a counter beside the gate, separate from the mosque's.
