Dhaka
Dhaka
Dhaka is Bangladesh's capital and largest city, and the hub of its intercity bus network. Long-distance coaches use terminals and counters across the city, including Gabtoli, Sayedabad and Mohakhali, so check your ticket for the exact drop-off point.
Local food to try
Where to eat
Where to stay
Culture
Dhaka has been a capital for four centuries, and Old Dhaka still shows it: Mughal forts and mosques, merchant houses and lanes named after the trades that filled them.
- Pohela Boishakh (Bengali New Year, 14 April) begins with songs under the banyan at Ramna and the Mangal Shobhajatra procession from the Faculty of Fine Arts.
- 21 February, International Mother Language Day, is marked at the Central Shaheed Minar.
- Shakrain, the kite festival, fills Old Dhaka’s rooftops in mid-January.
- In Ramadan, Chawkbazar’s iftar market is one of the city’s oldest food traditions.
- Look out for rickshaw art: the hand-painted panels on the city’s rickshaws are a craft of their own.
History
Dhaka grew up on the north bank of the Buriganga, where river trade had drawn markets and weavers long before it became a capital. In 1610 the Mughal governor Islam Khan made it the capital of Bengal and named it Jahangirnagar, after the emperor. For the next century it was one of the great cities of the subcontinent: its fine muslin was traded far beyond Bengal, and the Mughals left forts, mosques and caravanserais — Lalbagh Fort, begun in 1678 and never finished, and the Bara Katra among them.
When the provincial capital moved to Murshidabad in the early eighteenth century, Dhaka declined, and under British rule it became a district town. It rose again in the twentieth century: capital of the short-lived province of Eastern Bengal and Assam from 1905 to 1911, home of the University of Dhaka from 1921, and in 1947 the capital of East Bengal.
The city was at the centre of the Language Movement of 1952, remembered every 21 February at the Shaheed Minar, and of the struggle that led to independence in 1971. Since then it has been the capital of Bangladesh.
Today Dhaka is one of the most crowded cities in the world, and its two faces sit side by side: the narrow lanes, river ghats and Mughal buildings of Old Dhaka in the south, and the newer city of offices, universities and the metro rail stretching north.
Plan your visit
Best time to visit
October to March
How to get there
Dhaka is the hub of the country’s intercity buses: coaches arrive from every division at terminals and counters across the city, including Gabtoli, Sayedabad and Mohakhali. Check your ticket for the exact drop-off point.
Trains arrive at Kamalapur and Airport stations, and Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport has domestic flights from the main cities.
Getting around
- Metro rail (MRT Line 6) runs from Uttara to Motijheel, through Mirpur, Agargaon, Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Shahbag and Dhaka University — the fastest way north to south.
- Ride-hailing apps offer cars and motorbikes across the city.
- CNG auto-rickshaws are everywhere; agree the fare before you get in.
- Rickshaws are the way into Old Dhaka’s narrow lanes.
- Traffic is heavy at rush hour: allow extra time, or travel early in the day and on Fridays.