Buriganga River

The Buriganga is an 18-kilometre river along the southern edge of Dhaka, and the city's history has unfolded on its banks since the seventeenth century. Mughal governors moved their seat here in 1610 because the river offered a defensible link to the Bay of Bengal and carried trade in salt, rice and jute. Today the central landing at Sadarghat handles roughly 50,000 passengers a day, making it one of the busiest ferry terminals in the world. Standing on the embankment you watch wooden country boats, painted passenger ferries and cargo barges that feel closer to the nineteenth century than the twenty-first. The water is heavily polluted by tanneries and untreated sewage, yet the river remains the working artery and floating market of Old Dhaka. An early-morning boat between Sadarghat and the brick wharves reveals the country more honestly than any guided tour.