Manikganj, Dhaka
A row of grand nineteenth-century palace buildings with tall Corinthian columns, built by a merchant zamindar family and now protected by the Department of Archaeology.
The Baliati palace complex was built by the descendants of Gobinda Ram Saha, a salt merchant whose family grew rich in the eighteenth century and became zamindars. Over the following generations the family added a series of large buildings, most of them in the nineteenth century.
The front palaces stand side by side behind a long wall, with tall columns, ornate cornices and wide verandas in the European style that Bengal’s zamindars loved. Behind them are the inner quarters, and in front is a large pond with a bathing ghat.
The family left after Partition, and the complex is now protected by the Department of Archaeology. One of the buildings houses a small museum. It is one of the best-preserved zamindar houses in the Dhaka region and a favourite day trip.
Leave early to beat the Savar traffic and take a bus towards Saturia.
Walk around the front palaces, the museum, the inner courtyards and the pond.
A simple rice-and-fish lunch in the bazar.
Stop in Dhamrai to see its old houses and metal-craft workshops, then return to Dhaka.
November to March; check the weekly closing day locally before you go.
In Baliati village, Saturia upazila. From Manikganj town take a bus or CNG to Saturia, then a CNG or battery auto-rickshaw to Baliati. From Dhaka, buses to Saturia also run from Gabtoli via Dhamrai.
