Preservationists Fight to Save 3,000 Historic Structures in Old Dhaka

Dhaka is not a young city. It was a millennium-old settlement when Islam Khan Chishti, a Mughal governor, made it the capital of Bengal in 1610, renaming it Jahangirnagar. That deep history is concentrated, block by crumbling block, in Puran Dhaka-Old Dhaka-where approximately 3,000 heritage buildings still stand, mostly in disrepair. Today, those buildings face a threat more relentless than any Mughal siege: the high-rise construction reshaping the city skyline.

The Mughal and Colonial Footprint

The oldest surviving brick structure in Dhaka is the Binat Bibi Mosque, built in 1454 during the Bengal Sultanate. It predates the Mughal era by more than a century. Later Mughal rulers left their own monuments: Lalbagh Fort, a 17th-century complex begun by Prince Azam Shah, and Ahsan Manzil, the Pink Palace that served as the official residence of the Nawabs of Dhaka. These sites draw visitors, but they represent only a fraction of what Puran Dhaka holds. The rest-Mughal forts, colonial mansions, merchant houses-are documented but largely neglected.

Who Is Fighting to Save Them

The main force pushing back against demolition is the Urban Study Group, an architectural preservation collective that campaigns publicly to save Old Dhaka's historic structures. Their argument is straightforward: once a building is knocked down for a new tower, the piece of history it carried is gone forever. The group works largely without government backing, relying on public awareness and legal challenges to slow the loss of heritage fabric. They argue that Dhaka's identity-its sense of being a place with a past-depends on these buildings surviving, not just in archives but in brick and mortar.

A City Changing Faster Than Its Protectors

The numbers tell part of the story. According to documented surveys, Puran Dhaka contains approximately 3,000 heritage buildings. Most of them are in disrepair. No government tally has been released in recent years to update that count-and preservation advocates say the real figure is almost certainly lower as demolition continues. The Urban Study Group estimates that dozens of heritage structures are lost each year, often without public notice, replaced by residential or commercial high-rises that meet the city's soaring demand for space but erase its architectural memory.

What Comes Next

There is no official heritage protection plan in place for most of Old Dhaka's buildings. The city's preservation ordinance covers a handful of major sites like Lalbagh Fort and Ahsan Manzil, but the vast majority of the 3,000 documented structures lack legal safeguards. The Urban Study Group continues to lobby for a broader heritage listing and for stricter enforcement of demolition rules. For now, the fate of Puran Dhaka's built history rests on a small group of architects, activists and residents who refuse to let it disappear without a fight.