Baldha Garden

 Baldha Garden is an enriched botanical garden which spans 3.15 acres (1.27 ha) of land located at Wari in the old part of the city of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. It has a collection of 672 species of plants.The Baldha Garden is now managed as a satellite unit of the National Botanical Garden by the Department of Forestry.

Baldha Garden is one of the oldest Botanical Gardens in Bangladesh. It was established by Narenda Narayan Chawdhury.
Currently located at Wari, in the Old part of Dhaka city, the traditional Baldah Garden is a satellite unit of the National Botanical Garden situated in Mirpur.
The garden is enriched with rare plant species collected from different parts of the world.
History:
Baldah Garden a botanical garden located at Wari in the old part of the city of Dhaka. It is one of the oldest botanical gardens established in this part of Bengal by a private individual. The naturalist, philanthropist and poet Narendra Narayan Roy Chaudhury, landlord of the Estate of Baldah, established the garden on his own property in 1909. It is divided into two units.
The larger unit is named Cybele after the Greek nature goddess of fertility. It is roughly rectangular, with the northern side slightly cutting a corner, and measures about 136 metres in length and 76 metres in width. The smaller unit, Psyche meaning ‘soul’, is approximately 100 metres long and 45 metre wide. Chaudhury passionately enriched the garden with rare plant species collected from different parts of the world until his death in 1943, when further expansion of the garden came to a halt.
This situation continued until 1962, when the garden was handed over to the government of East Pakistan and the Forestry Department took charge of managing the garden. After the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, the Department of Forestry of the new government began to work with renewed vigour for its improvement, with the result that most of its past glory has now been restored with the addition of two new greenhouses and modernisation of civil amenities inside the garden. The Baldah Garden is now managed as a satellite unit of the National Botanical Garden by the Department of Forestry.

Baitul Mukarram Mosque

 

Architecture
The mosque has several modern architectural features whilst at the same time it preserves the traditional principles of Mughal architecture. Baitul Mukarram’s large cube shape was modeled to that of the Ka’abah at Mecca making it a noticeable structure being unlike any other mosque in Bangladesh.

Exterior design
The mosque is on a very high platform. The Baitul Mukarram Mosque’s building is eight storied and 99 feet high from the ground level. According to the original plan, the main entrance of the mosque was to be on the eastern side. The ‘shaan’ on the east is 29,000 square feet with ablution space on its south and north sides. Ablution or Wu’du Place cached an important part when the Baitul Mukarram was begun. The absence of a dome on the main building is compensated by the two superficial domed entrance porticoes, one on the south, and the other on the north. The height of these porticoes consists of three rabbit’s foot shaped arches, the middle of which is bigger than the rest.
Interior design
Two patios (roofless inner courtyard) ensure that enough light and air enter the prayer hall of Baitul Mukarram Mosque. The mehrab of the hall is rectangular instead of semi-circular. Excessive ornamentation is avoided throughout the mosque, since minimizing ornamentation is typical of modern architecture.
History
The mosque complex was designed by architect, T Abdul Hussain Thariani. The construction of Baitul Mukarram Masjid began on
27 January 1960, and has been going on in periods. At first Abdul Latif Ibrahim Bawany came about with the proposal of building a grand mosque with a large capacity. The plan included shops, offices, libraries and parking areas within the complex. Though there has been a tradition of dome mosque for Muslim, this building did not maintain the rule of traditional mosque in that time. A Mosque without a dome over the roof of its main prayer hall must have been a unique experiment. The mosque was built when the country was the Part of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.