Old Dhaka
Old Town · Dhaka, Dhaka
The dense riverside quarter where Dhaka began — Mughal provincial capital from 1608, and still the most intense square mile in Bangladesh. Puran Dhaka is a living old town, not a preserved one: Hindu artisan lanes at Shakhari Bazar, the chaos and spectacle of Sadarghat river terminal on the Buriganga, the Star Mosque's mosaic domes, the Armenian Church, centuries of food tradition, and hundreds of thousands of people working exactly where their trades have worked for four hundred years. Lalbagh Fort and Ahsan Manzil sit inside this district and carry their own entries.
Shakhari Bazar Road, Dhaka, Dhaka, 1100, Bangladesh
The district is public streets, open at all hours; its life runs roughly dawn to late evening. Interior sites keep their own hours — Ahsan Manzil closed Thursdays, Lalbagh Fort closed Sundays and Monday mornings, mosques closed to sightseeing at prayer times, everything shifted during Ramadan.