Ahsan Manzil is located on the north bank of river Buriganga in the Islampur area of old Dhaka. It is an ancient palace of the Nawabs. It was the residence of the Nawab family of Dhaka, a British Indian. Its construction started in 1859 and ended in 1872. The founder of this palace was the then Nawab Abdul Ghani. He named it after his son Khwaja Ahsanullah. This picturesque building is one of the best architectural monuments of Dhaka. This Ahsan Manzil is intertwined with many national and international memories, including many memorable events in the development and political development of the Dhaka metropolis.
At present this palace is a museum run by the Bangladesh National Museum. There is a beautiful octagonal dome in the middle on the roof of the palace. Outside the main building, there are three entrances to the building. In the same way, the stairs to the top catch everyone's eye. One of the notable installations of Ahsan Manzil is the path leading directly from the second floor to the courtyard of the palace. Which is a wide staircase towards the river Buriganga. The palace has two beautiful verandas on the east and west sides. Ahsan Manzil has a living room and a library on the inside.
To the west of the building are the dance hall and other living rooms. On the ground floor, there is a courthouse and a dining room. There are 31 rooms in Ahsan Manzil. 23 of these rooms have been presented for various exhibitions. The utensils in the Toshakhana and Kokorajib rooms of Ahsan Manzil and various artifacts from the old office of the Nawab State have been preserved. Which is on display at the Ahsan Manzil Museum. History says that in the middle of the eighteenth century, Jalalpur Pargana is now the Faridpur Barisal region. Sheikh Enayetullah Ahsan, the zamindar there, built a garden house on the present site of the manzil.
His son later sold the garden house to a French merchant. The building was used by the French as a trading post. In 1835 Nawab Abdul Gani, a resident of Begum Bazar bought it. And began to live by reformation. Nawab Abdul Ghani rebuilt it in 1872. To preserve the building, the renovated building no longer has that ancient look. After the construction of the new building, he named it Ahsan Manzil after his beloved son Khwaja Ahsanullah.
The historian travels to this palace, you can witness the history by looking around. You can glorify yourself by seeing this important place with your own eyes. You can get an idea about the culture and social system of Bengal at that time by looking at the things used by the Nawabs with your own eyes. You can also see how the Nawabs of Dhaka were the first to provide filtered water in Dhaka city. Nawab Abdul Gani installed this purification machine at a cost of about two and a half lakh taka. Before 1901, there was no electricity in Dhaka. At that time the first electricity was provided in Dhaka at a cost of about four and a half lakh taka. Note that electricity was first brought to Ahsan Manzil in our country.
