Experience the best of Rajshahi

Rajshahi stands on the northern bank of the Padma, as the Ganges is called in Bangladesh, in the dry north-west of the country. It is a calmer, greener city than most in Bangladesh, with wide tree-lined roads, a large university campus and a riverside promenade where families gather in the evening.

The Varendra Research Museum, founded in 1910, holds sculptures and inscriptions from ancient Bengal and is the oldest museum in the country. Puthia, a village east of the city, has a cluster of terracotta temples. Farther north at Paharpur, the ruins of the Somapura Mahavihara, a great Buddhist monastery, are a World Heritage site.

Rajshahi is the country's best-known mango region, and in summer the markets are piled high with fruit, while its silk saris are woven on looms in the town. Winter mornings are cool and misty.