Settlement in the area dates to between 500 and 200 BC. The ancient kingdom of Vanga gave way to the Buddhist Kamarupa, then the Pala Empire, then the Chandra dynasty, before the Hindu Sena dynasty took control in the 10th century. The city's name may derive from the Dhakeshwari Temple, built by Ballal Sena in the 12th century -- Dhakeshwari remains the national temple of Bangladesh today. The Delhi Sultanate, the Bengal Sultanate, and finally the Mughals in 1576 each left their mark. Under Mughal governors from 1610 onward, Dhaka became one of the largest and most prosperous cities on the Indian subcontinent. The oldest standing mosque dates to 1454. Armenians settled in Armanitola in the 17th and 18th centuries, building a church in 1781 that still stands. And in 1949, the Awami League was founded in a crumbling garden palace just off K.M. Das Lane.

Old Dhaka's residents call themselves Dhakaiya, and they mean something specific by it: a culture of communal intimacy that the sprawling new city cannot replicate. Hindu and Muslim festivals overlap here with unselfconscious ease. During Durga Puja, drumbeats fill the narrow lanes and neighborhoods blaze with light. At Shakrain, the kite festival marking the end of the winter month Poush, rooftops become stages for fire-breathing performances and fireworks. Shia Muslims process through the streets near Hussaini Dalan during Muharram. And at Chaand Raat, the night before Eid, the old neighborhoods erupt in fireworks and adda -- the unhurried Bengali art of conversation. The lanes are too narrow for fire trucks, which has proven tragically consequential, but they are exactly the right width for knowing your neighbors.

Ask anyone in Dhaka where to eat, and the answer is the same: Old Dhaka. The biriyani here -- particularly the legendary Haji Biriyani -- is a benchmark. Morog polau distinguishes itself from ordinary biriyani through turmeric and malai, the cream of milk. Bakarkhani, a dense flatbread, accompanies kata moshlar mangsho, meat cooked with whole spices rather than powdered blends. During Ramadan, Chawkbazar transforms into a miles-long iftar bazaar where boro baper polay khai -- a dish of minced meat, chickpeas, eggs, potatoes, and thirteen spices -- is a seasonal specialty. Kala bhuna, a slow-cooked beef dish, was born in these streets. The Prince of Wales bakery, established in the 1850s in Lakshmi Bazaar by a man from Wales, has been run by three generations of the same family and remains a quiet institution amid the chaos.

The landmarks read like a syllabus in subcontinental history. Lalbagh Fort, the unfinished Mughal governor's residence. Ahsan Manzil, the pink palace of the Nawabs of Dhaka, nationalized in 1952 and turned into a museum. Bara Katra, built in 1644 by Prince Shah Shuja, son of Shah Jahan, who never actually lived there. Northbrook Hall, constructed in 1881 with a hybrid of Mughal and European architecture to receive the British Viceroy. But many of these structures face demolition. Developers hungry for apartment space have knocked down Mughal and British-era buildings because the Archaeological Department never listed them for protection. In 2016, the three-hundred-year-old Gorostan Shahi Mosque was demolished to build a new structure. Shankhari Bazaar, the Hindu conch-shell craftsmen's quarter, was declared a heritage site in 2013, but residents resisted the restrictions. Old Dhaka's past is magnificent. Whether enough of it survives to remain so is an open question.