Sonargaon

Introducing Sonargaon

A great day trip from Dhaka (about 23km) is an excursion to Sonargaon (sometimes known as Old Sonargaon), the country’s first capital. Combining countryside, culture, archaeology, adventure and friendship in one tidy bundle, the village is an ideal way to experience all the best of Bangladesh in one easy step.

Except for some mosques, a bridge, a few tombs and stupas (Buddhist monuments), and some indistinguishable mounds (most of which are found around the small modern village of Mograpara), nothing much remains of the original city of Sonargaon. For most people, enchanting Painam Nagar is the real jewel.

Unfortunately the government’s archaeological department has done precious little to preserve the buildings of Sonargaon and, on the rare days that work is undertaken, the results are normally totally out of keeping with the surrounding buildings. Some of the poorer residents reportedly sell the bricks from ramshackle buildings to be broken into gravel for construction work. Since Independence, only Goaldi Mosque, a pre-Mughal bridge and a single rajbari (landowner’s palace) called Sadarbari (now housing a folk-art museum) have been restored.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009