Dhaka is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, a riverine metropolis on the Buriganga River in the heart of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta. Founded under Mughal rule in the early seventeenth century, it has served as a provincial capital, a short-lived regional capital under British partition plans, and, since 1971, the capital of an independent nation.

Where Is Dhaka Located?

Dhaka sits on the Buriganga River in central Bangladesh, within the wider Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta that makes up most of the country. Its low-lying, river-crossed setting has shaped both its historic trade routes and its ongoing exposure to flooding.

A Brief History of Dhaka

Mughal Foundations

Dhaka rose to prominence as a provincial capital under the Mughal Empire in the early 1600s, becoming the administrative center of Mughal Bengal and, with that status, an increasingly important trading and craft city on the eastern edge of Mughal India.

Colonial and Partition-Era Dhaka

Under British colonial rule, Dhaka’s status rose and fell with shifting administrative boundaries, including a brief period as the capital of the short-lived province of East Bengal and Assam in the early twentieth century. Following the 1947 partition of British India, Dhaka became the capital of East Bengal, later East Pakistan, within the new state of Pakistan, even though the two wings of the country were separated by more than a thousand kilometers of Indian territory.

Capital of an Independent Bangladesh

Political and economic grievances between East and West Pakistan led to Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War and the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent state, with Dhaka as its capital. Visible evidence of that transition sits at Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, where construction of the National Parliament House began in 1961, under the government of Pakistan’s then-president Ayub Khan, as part of an effort to establish Dhaka as a second capital and ease regional disparities, according to Bangladesh’s official tourism portal.^[1] Architect Muzharul Islam recommended bringing in his former Yale teacher, the American architect Louis Kahn, after other leading architects were unavailable, and construction was interrupted by the Liberation War before being completed in 1982, more than a decade after Kahn’s own death partway through the project.^[1]

Culture and Economy

Dhaka’s economy is built heavily around the ready-made garment industry, which has made Bangladesh one of the world’s largest textile exporters, alongside a dense informal trade and transport economy that depends on the city’s rivers and famously heavy road traffic. Bengali is the dominant language, and the city’s cultural life reflects its role as the demographic and intellectual center of Bangladesh.

What Is Dhaka Known For?

Dhaka is known internationally for the National Parliament House, Jatiyo Sangsad Bhaban, an architectural landmark that Bangladesh’s official tourism portal calls an important destination for visitors from home and abroad.^[1] Its combination of monumental geometric forms has made it one of the most widely published works of modern South Asian architecture, standing apart from the Mughal-era forts and mosques, such as Lalbagh Fort, that mark the city’s older history.

Why Dhaka Matters

Dhaka matters as the capital of one of the world’s most populous countries and as a city whose built environment records an unusually compressed political history: Mughal provincial capital, colonial administrative center, capital of a wing of Pakistan separated from its own government by another country, and finally the capital of an independent Bangladesh, all within roughly three and a half centuries.

Key Takeaways

• Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh, on the Buriganga River in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta.
• The city rose to prominence as a Mughal provincial capital in the early seventeenth century.
• Dhaka became the capital of East Pakistan after the 1947 partition, then the capital of independent Bangladesh after the 1971 Liberation War.
• The National Parliament House, designed by Louis Kahn, was begun in 1961 and completed in 1982.

Sources

• Government of Bangladesh, “National Parliament House,” Beautiful Bangladesh, Undated, https://beautifulbangladesh.gov.bd/loc/dhaka/102, accessed 2026-10-20.

Editorially reviewed by Specialty Digest Editorial TeamLast reviewed October 20, 2026Researched and drafted with AI assistanceReport an issue