Traveler welcome to Khulna Division's
The Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in the world (140,000 ha), lies on the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers on the Bay of Bengal. The Sundarbans was originally measured (about 200 years ago) to be of about 16,700 sq km. Now it has dwindled to about 1/3 of the original size.
Because of the partition of India, Bangladesh received about 2/3 of the forest; the rest is on the Indian side. It is now estimated to be about 4,110 sq km, of which about 1,700 sq km is occupied by water bodies.
The forest is intersected by a complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove forests, and presents an excellent example of ongoing ecological processes. The area is known for its wide range of fauna. The most famous among these is the, Bengal Tiger but numerous species of birds, spotted deer, crocodiles and snakes also inhabit it.
Shatgumbad Mosque is the largest of the Sultanate mosques in Bangladesh and one of the most impressive Muslim monuments in the whole of the Indian subcontinent. The mosque proper, built mainly of bricks, forms a vast rectangle and measures externally, inclusive of the massive two-storied towers on the angles, 48.77m from north to south and 32.92m from east to west.
Literally the term 'Shatgumbad' means sixty domes, but in reality the mosque has eighty-one domes in total - seventy-seven over the roof and four smaller ones over the four corner towers. Two suggestions may be made in this regard.
Firstly, the seven chau-chala vaults over the central nave might have given the building the name of Satgumbad (Sat means seven and gumbad means dome), which in course of time has possibly been transformed into Shatgumbad. Secondly, the sixty pillars, which support the huge domed-roof above, might also have originally given the mosque the name of 'Shat Khumbaz' (shat means sixty and khumbaz means pillar).
It is not unlikely that the word Khumbaz has subsequently been corrupted into gumbad to give the building the popular name of Shatgumbad. Of the two suggestions the latter seems to be more probable.
Nine-Dome Mosque is located on the western bank of the Thakurdighi, less than half a km away to the southwest of the tomb-complex of Khan Jahan. It is a brick-built square structure measuring about 16.76m externally and 12.19m internally. The 2.44m thick walls on the north, south and east sides are pierced with three arched-openings on each side; the central one, set within a rectangular frame, is larger than the flanking ones.
Khan Jahan's Tomb stands on a high artificial mound on the northern bank of the so-called Thakurdighiand is surrounded by an outer wall of 67.1 m from east to west and 64.7m from north to south. It is popularly called the dargah complex of Khan Jahan. The complex consists of the square tomb building of Khan Jahan himself; a sarcophagus of Muhammad Tahir, his diwan; a single-domed mosque and the so-called kitchen. An intermediate wall encircles the tomb of Khan Jahan and the sarcophagus of his diwan.