Major Tourist attractions in Bangladesh (category wise)

Bangladesh's tourist attractions include historical monuments, resorts, beaches, picnic spots, forests and tribal people, wildlife of various species. Activities for tourists include angling, water skiing, river cruising, hiking, rowing, yachting, and sea bathing.

Kuakata beach

In the northern part, comprising the Rajshahi division, there are archaeological sites, including the temple city Puthia in Rajshahi; the largest and most ancient archaeological site, Mahasthangarh in Bogra; the single largest Buddhist monastery, Paharpur in Naogaon; the most ornamental terracota Hindu temple, Kantaji Temple, and many rajbaris or palaces of old zamindars.

In the south-eastern part, which is the Chittagong Division, there are natural and hilly areas like Chittagong Hill Tracts, along with sandy sea beaches. The most notable beach, in Cox's Bazar, is a contender for the title of longest unbroken sandy sea beach in the world.

In the south-western part, mainly the Khulna Division, there is the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest of the world with royal Bengal tiger and spotted deer. The historically and architecturally important sixty domed mosque in Bagerhat is a notable site. In the north-eastern part, Sylhet division, there is a green carpet of tea plants on small hillocks. Natural reserved forests are great attractions. Migratory birds in winter, particularly in the haor areas, are also very attractive in this area.

Architecture

Religious

Bangladesh has many places of worship. Capital Dhaka is known as the city of mosques.

Some famous Religious Place of Worships and visitor attractions are: 

• Baitul Mukarram is the national mosque of Bangladesh. Located at the centre of Dhaka, the mosque was completed in 1968. The mosque has a capacity of 30,000, and it is world's tenth largest mosque.
• Mosque City of Bagerhat is a formerly lost city, located in the suburbs of Bagerhat city in Bagerhat District, in the Khulna Division. The historic city, listed by Forbes as one of the 15 lost cities of the world, has more than 50 Islamic monuments.

• Kantojiu Temple built between 1702 and 1752, a nava-ratna (nine-spired) style Hindu temple.
• Dhakeshwari Temple built in the twelfth century, the national temple of Bangladesh.
• Hoseni Dalan a Shia shrine built in the seventeenth century.
• Sixty Dome Mosque is a mosque in Bangladesh, the largest in that country from the Sultanate period. It has been described as "the most impressive Muslim monuments in the whole of the Indian subcontinent."

Ancient ruins

• Wari-Bateshwar ruins, built in 450 BC, 2500-year-old ancient fort city
• Somapura Mahavihara is a Buddhist monastery situated in the Rajshahi District in the north of Bangladesh. Covering almost 27 acres of land, Somapura Mahavira is one of the largest monasteries south of the Himalayas. The design is considered to be greatly influenced by Buddhist architecture found in Java and Cambodia.
• Mainamati is an isolated ridge of low hills in the eastern margins of deltaic Bangladesh, about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) to the west of Comilla town. A landmark of ancient history, it represents a small mass of quasi-lateritic old alluvium. The ridge, set in the vast expanse of the fertile lower Meghna basin, extends for about 17 kilometres (11 mi) north–south from Mainamati village on the Gumti River to Chandi Mura near the Lalmai railway station.
• The oldest archaeological site in Bangladesh is outside Bogra, at Mahasthangarh.

Middle Age  

• Sonargaon was the administrative centre of medieval Muslim rulers in East Bengal.

Lalbagh Fort

• Lalbagh Fort Lalbagh Fort or Fort Aurangabad, an incomplete Mughal palace fortress at Dhaka on the river Buriganga in the southwestern part of the old city. The fort was considered to be a combination of three buildings (the mosque, the tomb of Bibi Pari and the Diwan-i-Aam), two gateways and a portion of the partly damaged fortification wall.
• Ahsan Manzil was previously the official palace of the Dhaka Nawab family and is currently a museum preserving the culture and history of the area. Ahsan Manzil is considered to be one of the most noteworthy architectural monuments in Bangladesh.
• Bara Katra an architectural relic of Dhaka city. It is situated to the south of Chawk Bazar close to the bank of the river buriganga. The Katra enclosed a quadrangular courtyard with 22 rooms on all of its four sides.

British architecture

• Curzon Hall a hundred years old British style town hall.
• Northbrook Hall a hundred and fifty years old British style town hall.

Modern

• Bangladesh National Museum Located in the suburb of Shahbag, in the city of Dhaka, is the biggest museum in Bangladesh. It has a collection of over eighty five thousand pieces. The four-storey building is home not only to large exhibition halls, but to a conservatory laboratory, library, three auditoriums, photographic gallery, temporary exhibition hall, and an audio-visual division.

Shaheed Minar

• Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban Parliamentary Building of Bangladesh, located in Dhaka. It was created by architect Louis Kahn and is one of the largest legislative complexes in the world. It houses all parliamentary activities of Bangladesh.
• Taj Mahal Bangladesh is a Bangladeshi architecture inspired from original Taj Mahal

Historic monuments

• Greek Memorial is an ancient monument, built in around AD 1900, looks like ancient Greek temples, a small yellow structure on land owned by the Greek Community, which flourished in Dhaka in the 19th century.
• National Martyrs' Memorial is the national monument for the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971
• Martyred Intellectuals Memorial is a memorial built in memory of the martyred intellectuals of the Bangladesh Liberation War.
• Suhrawardy Udyan formerly known as Ramna Race Course ground is a national memorial located in Dhaka. It is named after Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy.
• Mosque City of Bagerhat is a formerly lost city, located in the suburbs of Bagerhat city in Bagerhat District, in the Khulna Division of southwest of Bangladesh and UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Ahsan Manzil was the official residential palace and seat of the Dhaka Nawab Family. This building is situated at Kumartoli along the banks of the Buriganga River in Dhaka.
• Lalbagh Fort is an incomplete seventeenth century Mughal fort complex in Dhaka. The construction was started in 1678 AD by Mughal Subahdar Muhammad Azam Shah.

Shiva Temple in Puthia, Rajshahi

• Shiva Temple in Puthia consists of a cluster of notable old Hindu temples in Puthia Upazila, Rajshahi Division, Bangladesh.
• Bangladesh Last House, the last house of Bangladesh located in the Bangladesh–India border at Jointa Hill Resort, this is a popular tourist destination.

Nature tourism

Bangladesh has geographical diversity, which resulted in varieties of nature tourism.

• The Sundarbans is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world and has also been enlisted among the top 14 finalists in the New7Wonders of Nature. Though can't enter into 7 wonders.

Sundarbans

• Hilly area, water falls, cave etc. in Khagrachari, Rangamati and Bandarban.
• Tangua haor, hakaluki haor and many other Haors in Sylhet division and some other surrounding districts.
• Largest swamp forest in Ratargul, Sylhet.

Lakes

• Kaptai Lake

 Kaptai Lake, Rangamati

• Dhanmondi Lake
• Foy's Lake
• Madhobpur Lake

Beaches

Bangladesh offers a wide range of tropical beaches.

• Cox's Bazar is known for its wide and long sandy beach which is considered as the world's longest natural sandy sea beach.

Some of the other famous tourist beaches are:

• St. Martin Island

Patenga sea beach

• Patenga sea beach
• Kuakata sea beach
• Nijhum Dwip

Islands

The islands of Bangladesh are scattered along the Bay of Bengal and the river mouth of the Padma. There are more than 30 islands in Bangladesh. Some famous tourist attractions are:

Sunset at Saint Martin's Island

• St. Martin's Island, St. Martin
• Chhera Island, St. Martin
• Bhola Island, Bhola
• Manpura Island
• Nijhum Dwip, Hatiya, Noakhali
• Sandwip Island, Chattogram
• Sonadia Island, Chattogram

Wildlife in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is home to several well-known mammals including the Bengal tiger, the Asian elephant, the hoolock gibbon and the Asian black bear. The saltwater crocodile found in Sundarbans is the

Bangladesh is the home of royal Bengal tigers

largest of all living reptiles, the king cobra is the world's longest venomous snake and the reticulated python is the longest among all snakes. The country has roughly 53 species of amphibian, 19 species of marine reptiles, 139 species of reptiles, 380 species of birds, 116 species of mammals, and 5 species of marine mammals. In addition to the large bird count, a further 310 species of migratory birds swell bird numbers each year. The vast majority of these creatures currently dwell in an area of land that is approximately 150,000 square kilometers (58,000 sq mi) in size. The dhole, also called the Asiatic wild dog, is now endangered by habitat, prey-species loss, and human persecution. Notable animal species that have disappeared from Bangladesh are the one- and two-horned rhinoceros, the gaur, the banteng, swamp deer, nilgai, Indian wolf, wild water buffalo, marsh crocodile and common peafowl.

The world's largest mangrove forest Sundarbans is located in Southwestern Bangladesh. Sundarbans National Parks are UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Courtesy: Wikipedia

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