Bangladesh
A densely populated delta nation at the mouths of the Ganges and Brahmaputra
Bangladesh is a nation built on water, a vast low-lying delta where the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers braid together before pouring into the Bay of Bengal. It is one of the most densely populated large countries on Earth, packing some 170 million people into a territory smaller than many a single province elsewhere. Out of frequent floods and cyclones it has fashioned remarkable resilience, lifting millions from poverty on the strength of garment factories, agriculture, and a vibrant Bengali culture of poetry, music, and language fierce enough to spark a nation.
Almost the entire country is flat, fertile alluvial plain, among the largest deltas in the world, laced with rivers and crisscrossed by countless channels. The only significant relief lies in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of the southeast, where the highest point, Saka Haphong, rises to about 1,064 meters. The south coast holds the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest and home to the Bengal tiger. The monsoon climate brings heavy summer rains and devastating cyclones, and the low elevation makes the country acutely vulnerable to flooding and rising seas.
The Bengal region was a wealthy center of trade and textiles under the Mughals and then the British Raj. Partitioned in 1947 as East Pakistan, its Bengali-speaking majority chafed under rule from West Pakistan, and a brutal war of independence in 1971, backed by India, gave birth to Bangladesh. Since then it has weathered coups, famine, and natural disaster to become a development success story, its ready-made garment industry now among the largest in the world. Dhaka, the teeming capital, anchors a young, entrepreneurial population proud of the Bengali language movement that helped define the nation.