Mosque of Kartalab Khan

The Shat Gombuj Mosque has existed for nearly for 6 centuries. It is also referred to as sixty Dome Mosque. It is one of the largest historical mosques in the Bangladesh. People in Indian subcontinent praise it for architectural beauty. Khan Jahan Ali built the Shat Gombuj Mosque. The walls are unusually thick, made from tapered brick. 77 low domes are located inside and one dome on every corner.

Many aisles serve as divisions in its interior. Most of its parts were decorated by terracotta. The structure looks like a fortress, three smaller mosques can be found near it. They are Bibi Begni’s Mosque, which is found on its western side; the Chunakhola Mosque, located half a mile northwest of Bibi Begni’s Mosque; and the Singar Mosque, which is a single-domed mosque like the Chunakhola, located nearly half a mile southeast of Shat Gombuj Mosque.

Gutia Mosque is situated in Barisal, also known as Baitul Aman Mosque. The mosque was built 20 km away from Barisal in a place called Ujirpur. It is supposed that, it took 210 million BDT to build this mosque. This mosque is outstanding to look at as the best equipment’s have been used. It is well decorated with lights, frames, and has speakers of BOSE, so the Azan is very melodious. The area is huge with a Madrasa, Eidgah, pond and garden. It has 30 staffs to look after the mosque. This mosque has separate place for women to perform Salah.

Mr. Sharfuddin Ahmed Shantu established this mosque in 16th Dec, 2003. He spent 10 million dollars to build this Gutia Masjid. The designs and decorations used here are taken from Europe, Asia, and Middle East's most famous mosque.

ইউরোপ, এশিয়া এবং মধ্য প্রাচ্যের নামকরা মসজিদগুলোর নকশা অনুকরনের প্রায় ২১ কোটি টাকা ব্যয় করে বরিশাল থেকে ২০ কিলোমিটার দূরে উজিরপুরে ১৬ ডিসেম্বর ২০০৩ তারিখে এই মসজিদটি নির্মাণ করেন জনাব শরফুদ্দিন আহমেদ সানটু। নয়নাভিরাম এই মসজিদটিতে ব্যাবহার করা হয়েছে উন্নমানের কাঁচ, ফ্রেম, এবং বোস স্পিকার, যেটির কারনে এই মসজিদের আজান বিশেষভাবে শ্রুতিমধুর হয়েছে। মসজিদটির বিশাল সীমানার মধ্যে আরও আছে মাদ্রাসা, ঈদগাহ, পুকুর এবং বাগান। এই মসজিদটির তত্ত্বাবধানে ৩০ জন কর্মচারী নিয়োজিত আছেন। মহিলাদের নামাজ আদায়ের জন্য আলাদা ব্যাবস্থা রয়েছে মসজিদটিতে।

Atkandi Nilkuthi Mosque (আটকান্দি নীলকুঠি মসজিদ ) is situated in the Atkandi village of Raypura upazila, Narsingdi. It was built by a man named ‘Alim Uddin’. Alim Uddin built this Mosque just beside the grave yard of his wife ‘Sadetunnesa’. To build this Mughal stylistic Mosque he brought some masons from far land Mohishur, India. Some even compare it with Tajmahal, given its architectural style and the emotions behind it.

Alim Uddin completed his education on Islamic religion from Deobond and later worked as Teacher in a madrasa, conducted by Khawaza Family in Dhaka. Later in 18th century, he built this Mosque, however the exact date of founding this Mosque could not be determined.

It is a rectangular shaped Mosque. Which can be divided into three specific spatial context. We can exemplify it as below- 1. Inner zone 2. Exterior Corridor zone 3. Exterior Porch zone (under open sky)

Inner Zone of this Mosque contains three domes, and a Mihrab. Among these, three bulbous domes, among which the middle one is the biggest. The inner zone contains two entrances.

Exterior corridor zone of this mosque is elongated in north-south forming a rectangular shape. It contains five bulbous domes, which is smaller than other three. This zone also contains five entrances which are arch shaped and decorated with multi foiled design. In parapet it’s decorated with the Merlon design. In the base line of outer wall it’s decorated with a pitcher design.

Exterior porch zone of this mosque was built considering the large gathering which take place. It’s a square shaped plastered floor, with one feet high bordered wall all around the porch. It contains a main gateway to enter into the Mosque.

Public gathering in different occasion:

In different kind of public occasions, like in the eve of Eid-festivals and in common vacations people from different parts of the country come here to visit this place. On the southern part of this Mosque there is an old Ghat (in the edge of a river) which has stepped down to the branch of Meghna river. So far we know, it was built by G.P. Wize when this region was a place to plant indigo in a massive scale.

Present Condition and ruins of several unrevealed structure:

Present condition of this Mosque is not so consistent in a sense of building strength. It is in very sensitive condition, where it is randomly being used without any treatment of conservation & preservation. That’s why we can observe some deterioration in the brick building both in Exterior & interior part.

In the northern part of the Mosque there are some ruins of buried structure. Some outer portion of that buried structure is seem like spherical shape. Which demands more exploration and systematic archaeological excavation to reveal the history behind this region.

Sat Masjid is located in the Mohammadpur area of Dhaka city, the building exhibits seven domes- three over the prayer chamber and four over the corner towers. Hence it is known as Sat Gombuz (seven domed) Mosque. The mosque occupies the western end of a slightly raised masonry plinth 26.82m by 25.60m, which is enclosed by a low wall with a gateway in the middle of the eastern side. This arched gateway with flanking ornamental turrets is exactly in alignment with the central doorway of the mosque proper. The top of the gateway could be approached from either the north or the south by an ascending flight of steps.

The mosque proper forms a large rectangle 14.33m by 4.88m on the inside and is emphasised with massive hollow domed towers of octagonal design on the exterior angles. The prayer chamber is entered through arched doorways - three in the east and one each on the north and south sides.

Corresponding to the three eastern archways there are three semi-octagonal mihrabs inside the western wall. Beside the central mihrab there is a three-stepped masonry pulpit. The central archway and the central mihrab, including two other archways on the north and south walls, have outwardly projected frontons depicting ornamental turrets on either flank.

The interior of the mosque is divided by two wide arches into three conventional divisions - a large central square bay and a smaller rectangular bay on either side. The roof is covered with three slightly bulbous domes on octagonal drums, the central one being bigger than its flanking counterparts. The large central dome is supported by the wide arches together with the two blocked arches over the central mihrab and central archway and the triangular pendentives on the upper angles. But in covering the side rectangles with domes a clever method has been adopted. In order to make a circular base for the dome, the rectangular space has first been made square above by creating half-domed vaults on the east and west walls. These half-domed vaults together with a further series of pendentives on the corners directly support the small domes.

The corner towers have flanking turrets like those in Khwaja Shahbaz’s Mosque and musa khan mosque, both in Dhaka city. Each of these consists of two storeys and is a monument by itself. The lower storey is pierced with four cardinally set arched openings in the north-south and east-west axis. Internally the roof of the lower storey is domical, but its reverse side is flat and forms the floor of the upper storey.