The Shat Gambuj Mosque In Bangladesh

The Shat Gambuj Mosque is one of the greatest tourist attractions and one of the best architectural beauties of Bangladesh. In mid 15th century, a Muslim colony was founded in the inhospitable mangrove forest of the Sundarbans near the seacoast in Bagerhat district by a saint Ulugh Khan Jahan. He was the earliest torchbearer of Islam in the South who laid the nucleus of an affluent city during the reign of Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah (1442-59), then known as ‘Khalifatabad’ (present Begerhat). Khan Jahan adorned his city with numerous mosques, tanks, road and public buildings. The most spectacular of which is the imposing multidomed mosque in Bangladesh, known as the Shat Gambuj Masjid/Mosque. The stately fabric of the monument stands on the eastern bank of a vast sweet-water tank, clustered around by the heavy foliage of a low-lying countryside char-acteristic of a seacoast landscape. The mosque is roofed over with 77 squat domes, including 7 chauchala or four-sided domes in the middle row. The vast prayer hall is provided with 11 arched door-ways on east and 7 each on north and south for ventilation and light. It has 7 longitudinal aisles and 11 deep bays by a forest of slender stones columns. From these columns spring rows of endless arches, supporting the domes. The arches are six feet in thickness, have slightly tapering hollow and round walls. The interior and the exterior of the mosque give a view of rather plain architecture but the interior western wall of the mosque was beautifully decorated with terracotta flowers and foliage. Besides being used as a prayer hall the mosque was also used as the court of Khan Jahan Ali. Now it is one of the greatest tourist attractions and best architectural beauties of Bangladesh.