The Sixty Dome Mosque, is a mosque in Bagerhat, Bangladesh. It is a part of the Mosque City of Bagerhat, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is the largest mosque in Bangladesh from the sultanate period (1352–1576). It was built during the Bengal Sultanate by Khan Jahan Ali, the governor of the Sundarbans. It has been described as "one of the most impressive Muslim monuments in the whole of South Asia.
History
In the middle of the 15th century, a Muslim colony was
founded in the mangrove forest of the Sundarbans, near the coast in the
Bagerhat District by a saint-General, named Khan Jahan Ali. He preached in an
affluent city during the reign of Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah, then known as
'Khalifatabad'. Khan Jahan adorned this city with more than a dozen mosques,
the ruins of which are focused around the most imposing and largest multi-domed
mosques in Bangladesh, known as the Shait-Gumbuz Masjid (160'×108'). The
construction of the mosque began in 1442 and was completed in 1459. The mosque
was used for prayers as well as a madrasha and assembly hall.
Location
It is situated in Bagerhat district, southern Bangladesh, within the Khulna Division. It is about 5 kilometres (3 mi) from the main town of Bagerhat. Bagerhat is nearly 320 km (200 mi) from Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh
Architecture
The 'Sixty Dome' Mosque features unusually thick, tapered
brick walls in the Tughlaq style and a hut-shaped roofline that anticipates
later styles. Its oblong plan measures 148'6" x 101'4" externally and
123'3" x 76'2" internally. There are 77 low domes arranged in seven
rows of eleven, with an additional dome on each corner, bringing the total to
81 domes. There are four towers, two of four towers were used for the call to
prayer (azaan). The interior is divided into many aisles and bays by slender
columns, which culminate in numerous arches that support the roof.
The mosque has 77 squat domes with 7 four-sided pitched
Bengali domes in the middle row. The vast prayer hall, although provided with
11 arched doorways on east and 7 each on north and south for ventilation and
light, presents a dark and somber appearance inside. It is divided into 7
longitudinal aisles and 11 deep bays by a forest of 60 slender stone columns,
from which springs rows of endless arches, supporting the domes. 1.8 m (6 ft)
thick, slightly tapering walls and hollow and round, almost detached corner
towers, resembling the bastions of fortress, each capped by small rounded
cupolas, recall the Tughlaq architecture of Delhi. The western wall features
eleven mihrabs on the interior where ten are blind and the central one is
projected on the exterior. The mosque represents wonderful archeological beauty
which was the signature in the 15th century.
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