Sonargaon - সোনারগাঁ

Sonargaon was the administrative centre of Eastern Bengal under the Muslim rulers of Bengal. To be more specific, Sonargaon was the capital of the ancient kingdom ruled by Isha Khan of Bengle. Today, old Sonargaon is home to some of the oldest buildings in Bangladesh and it is the name of an upazila of Narayanganj district.

Historical ancient capital Sonargaon is about 27 kilometers to the southeast of Dhaka. It is difficult to locate exactly the medieval city, but from the extant remains it appears to have embraced a wide tract bounded on the east, west and south by the Meghna, the Shitalakhya and the Dhaleshwari rivers respectively and on the north by Brahmaputra.

It is evident that an extensive Muslim settlement had grown over the entire Mograpara and Goaldi region from the existing archaeological remains, and perhaps the Muslim capital city developed in and around Mograpara on the northern bank of the river Menikhali, extending towards Goaldi and Baidyer Bazaar. The Hindu capital city, most probably comprising the area between Panam-Nagar and Khasnagar, was not altogether abandoned during Muslim rule, and perhaps constituted the place of residence of the early Muslim governors.

Panam City is also known as "the lost city". It is situated at Sonargaon Upazila of Narayanganj District. Panam city was built by the upper- middle class Bengali businessmen, mainly Hindu cloth merchants, in the 19th century. It was built in the once capital of Bangladesh, Sonargaon. This city is now in ruins. In the last of 19th century, Panam city was built in Sonargaon. That time, business of cotton and other cloths were developed based on the Panam city. That time, Sonargaon got it heritage back a little. In the first part of the 20th century, some rich Hindu businessmen started to live permanently in the city. The still remaining ruins of the buildings were the residence of those businessmen. In those days, no city at the east Bengal was near as wealthy as Panam. All the buildings in the city were built facing a single road, which is 5 meters long and 600 miter wide. There still remain 52 buildings. The whole city is surrounded with artificial canals. These canals were dug to protect the city from any outside attack. There was only one bridge to enter the city in the west side. Back of every building is a pond. These ponds were used for household works. After the 1965 war of India-Pakistan, Hindu businessmen started to leave, and the city was deserted. World monument...