Mahasthangarh

Mahasthangarh is the oldest known urban site in Bangladesh, a walled citadel on the west bank of the Karatoya that was called Pundranagara and was already a provincial capital of the Mauryan empire in the third century before Christ. The rampart encloses a rectangle a kilometre and a half long, and the mound stands eight metres above the paddy around it. A stone plaque found here carries a Brahmi inscription that fixes the date. Govinda Bhita temple sits at the northern corner. The site museum holds the terracotta and the coins. Bogra thirteen kilometres south is the town every visitor stays in, and the nearest railway is there.