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Being a “Bangladeshi”, I take pride in many of the historical heritage of my country, including a number of historical places, which has carried a very rich and eventful past of my country for centuries. Today, I would like to talk about one such historical place, called the “Panam city”, which is unique in every true sense.

“Panam city” sits in the city of “Sonargaon”, located about 29 kilometres north of the capital “Dhaka”. Covering an area of almost 20 kilometres, “Panam city” once used to be the capital of the 15th century “Bengal” and thrived as the major inland port and centre of commerce and politics. Later in the 17th and 18th century, it also became the centre of trade for “muslin” (a special but “plain weave” of very fine cotton fabric which was very popular in the European market, the middle east and other markets all over the world for its “very special quality”).

The “lost city”, as it is called by many and is also known to be the only abandoned city of its kind in the whole world, has about 50+ old houses on the same street. But, even the houses are centuries old, they still bear the regal signs on their ancient walls, bricks and the terracotta on the black stones. Another very significant and unique aspect of this “lost city” is that it marked the end of the line of the “Grand Trunk Road”, one of Asia’s oldest and longest major roads, which had linked the Indian subcontinent with Central Asia for almost 2500 years.  

Anyway, as I was strolling through the “old ruins” of one of the most distinguished cities of the “old world”, I couldn’t help but feeling both the energy and aristocracy sustained from a very “bustling city” of a bygone era. Besides, the medieval houses and monuments under the sunny weather looked like they had a lot of stories to share with us if only they could talk, and we had time to listen and learn from the past that nothing really lasts forever.

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