Experiences
Discover historic Murshidabad
Murshidabad sits along the Bhagirathi and is famous for its palaces, mosques, gardens and colonial heritage. Around 15 lakh travellers come to see it every year. This is the running order we'd give you if you asked at reception — what to see, how long it takes, and when it's shut.
01
The most iconic landmark in Murshidabad and one of the most visited heritage sites in West Bengal. Built in 1837 for Nawab Nazim Humayun Jah to a Greek-Doric design by the British architect Duncan Macleod. Hazarduari means palace of a thousand doors — many of them false, built to confuse intruders. It is now a museum of royal arms, paintings, manuscripts, antique furniture and chandeliers from the Nawabi period.
02
One of the largest imambaras in India, standing directly opposite Hazarduari. The present building went up in 1847 under Nawab Nazim Mansur Ali Khan after fire destroyed the earlier one. The great hall and its chambers are still used for religious gatherings, and thousands come during Muharram.
03
One of the oldest mosques in Murshidabad, raised in 1723 by Nawab Murshid Quli Khan, who founded the city. It was once an important centre of Islamic learning. The Nawab is buried beneath the entrance steps rather than inside — a deliberate gesture of humility.
04
A nineteenth-century palace built by the wealthy Jain merchants of Murshidabad. The grounds hold gardens, statuary, a Jain temple and a museum of antiques — the whole complex a record of how much the merchant families were worth when they dominated trade here.
05
Built in the nineteenth century by Raja Kirti Chandra Singha Bahadur, and once an administrative seat under the Nawabs. Its courtyards, halls and Durbar Hall are what remain of aristocratic Murshidabad.
06
Motijheel means pearl lake: a horseshoe of water ringed by gardens and old structures, laid out as a pleasure garden for the Nawabs and later tied up with British administration in Bengal. Today it is somewhere to walk, take photographs and sit by the water — and it is the reason this resort stands where it does.
07
A walled garden cemetery across the Bhagirathi, and the burial place of Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah — the last independent Nawab of Bengal — along with members of his family. Everything that followed the Battle of Plassey in 1757 leads back to this quiet enclosure.
08
The family burial ground of Mir Jafar, who succeeded Siraj-ud-Daulah after Plassey. Several historic tombs and monuments to his descendants stand here. Read alongside Khoshbag, it is the other half of the same argument.
09
Built late in the nineteenth century by Nawab Wasif Ali Mirza, near the Bhagirathi and Hazarduari. European in manner — marble floors, heavy columns — and the clearest example of how the later Nawabs wanted to be seen.
10
One of the largest cannons ever cast in India, made in the seventeenth century under the Mughals. It weighs several tons and was produced with the most advanced metal-casting technique of its day. Ten minutes, and worth the detour.
Or stay in
Boating and fishing off our own bank, pearl farming you can watch, a barbeque area for the evening, a badminton court, two trains for the children and a park for them to run off the rest.
Base yourself here
Every site on this list is an easy trip from the resort. Stay two nights and you won't have to rush any of it.