1404 BANGLADESH - Mahansthangarh and its Environs (UNESCO WHS - Tentative List)

Located 11km north of Bogra, Mahasthangarh, the ancient capital of Pundravardhana, home of the Pundra, a group of people not speaking languages of the Indo-European family, is one of the earliest urban archaeological sites so far discovered in Bangladesh. Mahasthan means a place that has excellent sanctity and garh means fort. A limestone slab bearing six lines in Prakrit in Brahmi script, discovered in 1931, dates Mahasthangarh to at least the 3rd century BC, and the fortified area was in use till the 18th century AD. The site is protected by the Karatoya River (now only a small stream) on the west and a deep moat on the south, west and part of the north.

1161 BANGLADESH (Dhaka) - National Martyrs' Memorial in Savar

1161 National Martyrs' Memorial in Savar

Located at about 35km northwest of Dhaka, the capital city of the country, Jatiyo Smriti Soudho, the National Monument for the Martyrs of the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 (which brought independence and separated Bangladesh from Pakistan) was designed by Syed Mainul Hossain and inaugurated at 16 December, 1982. The monument is composed of 7 isosceles triangular pyramid shaped structures, with the middle one being the tallest. The highest point of the monument is 50m. There is an artificial lake, and several mass graves in front of the main monument. From the main gate one can see the monument axially, but to reach there one has to walk through different levels of red pavements and cross a lake - all these representing the struggle for independence.

0066 BANGLADESH (Chittagong) - Sangu River

Bangladesh is located in the low-lying Ganges-Brahmaputra River Delta, where the medieval European geographers have placed the paradise. Most parts of of the country are less than 12m above the sea level, which means that about 10% of the land would be flooded if the sea level were to rise by 1m. The highest region of Bangladesh is in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the only hill intensive area of the country, divided in 1984 into 3 disctricts: Khagrachari, Rangamati and Bandarban. The image from the postcard seems to be from Thanchi, a remote upazila parishad (county subdivisions) of Bandarban, practically located along the Sangu River.