The Sixty Dome Mosque: A Marvel of Bengal Architecture
The Sixty Dome Mosque: A Marvel of Bengal Architecture The Sixty Dome Mosque is a stunning monument of the Bengal Sultanate period, which combined Islamic and indigenous elements. It belongs to the Mosque City of Bagerhat, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that has 360 mosques, public buildings, mausoleums, bridges, roads, and water tanks made of baked brick. The mosque was constructed in the 15th century by Khan Jahan Ali, a Muslim saint and local ruler who established a Muslim colony in the mangrove forest of the Sunderbans, near the coast in the Bagerhat District. He called the city Khalifatabad and decorated it with many mosques, the most majestic and largest of which is the Sixty Dome Mosque. The mosque has a rectangular plan that measures 148’6" x 101’4" externally and 123’3" x 76’2" internally. It has 77 low domes arranged in seven rows of eleven, with an extra dome on each corner, bringing the total to 81 domes. There are four towers, two of which wer