Kella Lalbagh (The Red Garden Fort)

While in Dhaka, we were able to visit the Red Fort or Red Garden. Apparently the gardens here (which are quite beautiful) used to have a lot more roses and red flowers. It was built in the late 1600s by a Mughal ruler (this is before the british arrived). The river that flows through Dhaka used to be immediately outside the walls of the fort and it was used to fill the numerous fountains they built to cool the inner portion. The original ruler never finished it completely and it's unclear if it's because word came from Delhi that he should stop construction, or if he thought it was no longer an auspicious location because his favorite daughter died there. It was used to protect the original city of Dhaka during various periods, however. Here are some images:
This photo was taken from the top of the barracks.


The barracks where the military were housed, with one of the numerous (empty) fountains:
In case you're confused, only the pink-colored buildings belong to the fort. The apartments that rise above it are current residences....
You can see in almost all these images how the city is built right up next to the fort. The tour guide told us it's not eligible as a world historic site b/c there's not enough buffer space between it and the residences that surround it.


This was the inside of the black dome--apparently a Hindu architectural structure, not muslim, but we were told the Mughals (who were muslims) took the best of whatever culture and incorporated it:
The daughter's tomb is here also:
This is actually the tomb of the youngest daughter, Shamshad Bhanu--Bibi Pari's looked very similar, but was larger. It was next to the prayer room in the mosque and I wasn't sure if it was cool to take photos or not. Shamshad's here was child-sized. :-(Here is a close-up of the beautiful tiles. The older/faded ones are original from around 1680 (it's amazing to me they even look this good!) and the new, more colorful ones were re-created and sent from India

There was also a little museum in one of the buildings. There were no cameras allowed, but there were some military items, including British-introduced muskets and various coins, rugs and other artifacts. The more interesting part to me was the spears, which they dipped into snake poison to more surely kill their enemies (it's hard to kill someone with one spear puncture unless you hit just the right place, but with snake poison, almost any scratch will do) and also the elephant-skin shields.
Some of the older printed money here have images of this fort on it (the 50 taka and 100 taka bills)
Another interesting aspect of this visit were the large number of young couples hanging out here. The city is so big and noisy and dirty and there is very little entertainment, so this is one of the few places you can go with your sweetheart on a date. We even saw a few people with linked pinkies or snuggling on benches in the shade (very risque to do in public-- someone might see them!) But it lent a sweet, relaxed tone to the otherwise formal garden and intense heat of the sun.