River, lake and haor, Bagerhat
Ghora Dighiঘোড়া দিঘি
- Time needed
- Half an hour for the walk to Bibi Begni.
- best months
- Nov–Feb
- Cost
- Free.
The 'horse tank' beside the Sixty Dome Mosque, a quarter-mile sheet of water dug in the 1400s, with the mosque mirrored on its east bank and Bibi Begni on its west.
Plan your visit
- Best time
- Late afternoon for the reflection; early morning for the fishermen.
At a glance
- Size
- About 460 × 230 m
About
Khan Jahan dug his mosque a tank as he dug his town wells, and the Ghora Dighi is the setting that makes the Sixty Dome Mosque a picture rather than a building. It is about 460 metres long and 230 wide, oriented north to south, with the mosque's east front rising straight from its bank. The name, "horse tank", comes with the usual story: that its length was fixed by how far a horse could gallop before it tired.
Most visitors see it only from the mosque gate. Walk its north bank instead. Fishermen work it with cast nets, kingfishers sit on the stakes, and after a few hundred metres the Bibi Begni Mosque appears on the far shore, with Chunakhola in the fields beyond. Late afternoon, with the mosque's domes lit from the west and doubled in the water, is the hour for it.
Getting there: Immediately west of the Sixty Dome Mosque; steps lead down from the mosque's west side.
Things to do
- Walk the north bank to the Bibi Begni Mosque and on to Chunakhola.
- Photograph the Sixty Dome Mosque mirrored in the water from the west bank.
Good to know
- No swimming; the banks are steep and the water is not clean.
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