Sixty-domed mosque,Bagladesh
Six Dome Mosque is an ancient mosque located in the southwest of Bagerhat district of Bangladesh. There is no inscription on the mosque. So there is no exact information about who built it or when it was built. But the architecture of the mosque leaves no doubt that it was built by Khan-i-Jahan. He is believed to have built it in the 15th century. This mosque was built over many years and at a great expense. The stones were brought from the palace. It is located within one of the three World Heritage Sites of Bangladesh; Bagerhat city itself has been given the status of World Heritage Site. This honor was given by UNESCO in 1983.
The mosque is about 160 feet long externally from north to south and about 143 feet long internally and about 104 feet externally from east-west and about 88 feet wide internally. The walls are about 8·5 feet thick. During the reign of Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah (1435-59), Khan al-Azam Ulugh Khanjahan built the kingdom of Khalifabad on the lap of the Sundarbans. Khan Jahan built a Durbar Hall for meetings, which later became the Sixty Domed Mosque. Tughlaki and Jaunpuri architectural styles are evident in it.
The east wall of the mosque has 11 large arched doors. The middle door is larger than the others. There are 7 doors each on the north and south walls. There are 4 minarets at the 4 corners of the mosque. They are circular in design and taper towards the top. They have circular bands near the cornice and round domes at the top. The height of the minarets is higher than the roof cornice. The front two minarets have stairwells and the Azaan was called from here. One of them is called Roshan Kotha, the other is called Andhar Kotha. There are 60 pillars inside the mosque. They are arranged in 6 rows from north to south and each row has 10 pillars. Each pillar is made of cut stone, only 5 pillars are covered with bricks from the outside.
Domes are built on these 60 pillars and surrounding walls. The name of the mosque is Shat Gambooz (60 domes) mosque, but there are not 60 domes in total, but 77 domes in 11 rows. The seven domes in the middle row between the door between the eastern wall and the mihrab between the western wall look a lot like rice bowls in Bangladesh. The remaining 70 domes are semi-circular. There are 10 mihrabs on the west wall inside the mosque. The central mihrab is large in size and elaborate. There are 5 mihrabs in the south and 4 mihrabs in the north of this mihrab. Just after the middle mihrab there is a small door on the north side where there is supposed to be a mihrab. According to some, Khan-i-Jahan used this mosque as a Durbar house apart from the function of prayers, and this door was the entrance to the Durbar house. Others say that the mosque was also used as a madrasah.
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