Chandranath Hill

Chandranath Hill stands as a natural crown over Sitakunda, offering breathtaking views of endless green landscapes and one of the most recognized hill in Bangladesh. Almost every travel enthusiast in my country has already explored it more than twice in their life, and I have visited it more than five times. You can think of it as the Mount Everest of Chittagong District; the height is 1150 feet. This hill is taller than a 100-story building. If the weather is on your side, you can find out the biggest port city of my country from the atop of the hill. And in front of it, the mighty Bay of Bengal is always there to enchant the tourists & travelers. You can definitely choose Chandranath Hill – where green whispers and mountain winds meet serenity. It is easier to climb, and there is absolutely no danger compared to all the other hills in Bangladesh. If you haven’t visited this hill yet, then hold on to me; I will provide every detail that can assist you in exploring the hill.

How it looks

It is a typical hill that is completely covered with foliage, and the surrounding greenery is very visually appealing. Apart from a hill, it has another great recognition among Hindu religion people. In this hill, There are many holy structures with two major Hindu temple; Chandranath temple and Sri Sri Virupaksha temple. The first one stood atop from ages. It is understood that the name of the hill is derived from the name of this temple. About 150 feet down from the top, Sri Sri Virupaksha temple is located, the other major one. There are two way to climb the hill; on right, a fully staircase way and on left, typical hilly path. Hilly path is easy to climb up the hill compare to staircase path and staircase path is best for climb down from the hill.

Significance of Chandranath Hill

Chandranath Hill is simply just not a hill but also a believed of Hinduism. This belived is the main reason behind the recognization of the hill beyond the country. Every year native and foreign Hindu people come here to complete there pilgrimage. On every shivratri, the hill hold a festive look, Hindu people play a significant worship in the Sri Sri Virupaksha temple to lord Shiva. To celebrate the worship, a grand fair held all over the Sitakunda. And In recent times, it rise as a tourist site and become one of the best tourist places in Chittagong. First timer tourists can think it as a beginner course of hill climbing. So, at a same time, Chandranath Hill plays a role that satisfy both Hindu people and tourists.

Short history

Hindu people believe that the hill has something that they consider one of the Shaktipeeth (Devine Power) out of fifty one. This is why the hill in always blessed and has the power to grant wish who ever complete the pilgrimage. They also believe that a great figure Ramachandra in Hindu religion stayed here with his wife Sita and brother Lakhan. At the bottom of the hill, there are still three Kunda (pond for taking bath) of them. Another legend concerning the Chandranath Hill states that a Nepalese king once had a dream in which a deity gave him instructions to construct five temples. He completed the task of making five of them, two of which are in Bangladesh. One is situated at Moheshkhali island and other one situated at the top of the Chandranath Hill.

Location

This hill is located in Chittagong’s Sitakunda Upazila, 5–6 kilometers from Sitakunda Bazar, and 40–45 kilometers from Chittagong city.

How to go

As chittagong is the main business hub of Bangladesh, so it is well connected with all cities by every possible means. For reaching Sitakunda Upazila, tourists and travelers loved to choose either bus or train. Let me explain-

The Subarna Express, Mohanagar Express, and Karnaphuli Express trains are the regular trains of Dhaka-Chittagong route. By those trains, tourists should have either disembark in Feni or Chittagong for reachig Sitakunda. If they choose to disembark in Fenni, then proceed to the Mohipal bus stop in order to board a bus that travels to Chittagong. By the bus, travelers can easily reach sitakunda in hour. If they diesmbark in Chittagong, then need to take a local bus or taxi to reach Sitakunda.

There is also a train named Chittagong Mail train that also running from Dhaka to Chittagong but it stop at almost every station. So, by this train tourists and travelers can directly reach Sitakunda but as it is a local train, unwanted things like theft happen on every departure. As a local train, there is no seat plan on it for passenger, who come first, first served. To have a good sit, you should have broad into the train before one hour ago from the depature time. Everyday at 11.45 p.m the train depature from Kamalapur train Station and its ticket can be brought at 125 BDT from counter number 19. My friend, if you are on tight budget, then choose this train Otherwise it is not recomemded. After all we travel to meet high end peace to refresh ourself.

As sitakunda Upazila is well connected by roads, it will be no problem to reach there. All you just need to make sure to choose a reliable bus for safe journey to Sitakunda. Because the highway raod is one of the busiest road in my country and the accident rate is a little bit high on the road.

Reaching Chandranath Hill from Sitakunda is just as easy as have a cup of tea, just rent a CNG( a three wheeler vehicle) at 15-20 BDT per head from Sitakunda Bazzar. The Bazzar is pretty close to train station and bus stand, just to walk a few steps

Precautions

Chandranath Hill or whatever hill, hilly path is always dangerous, so don’t let your guard down, always be carefull. Carry a water with you, it surley assist you to climb up, at least one litre. As the hill is also a recognize pilgrimage site, so there are many food stalls in every possible level of the hill to assist devoted and tourists to regain energy. And the price rate is a little bit high like 10 BDT’s product become 15 BDT and 20 BDT’s product become 25 BDT.

Food & stay

For good meal, tourists have to depend of road side restuarents of Sitakunda Bazzar surrounding area.

If tourists just focus on exploring Chandranath Hill, they don’t need hotel at all to stay. Rather they will have much much leisure time at their hand after visiting the hill. If tourists wants explore more places, then they have to stay. After all Sitakunda Upazila is known for its various trails where many beautiful waterfall are hidden. I recomend to stay in Sitakunda Bazzar surrounding, because there are plenty of hotels than other area of the upazila. 1000 to 2000 BDT is far enough to find a good room with air conditioner to stay overnight. There is a hotel named Hotel 99 Residential just located beside bus stand. There service are quite good, I stayed there in my sitakunda trip.

One day trip plan

Chandranath Hill, Guliakhali Sea Beach, and Sitakunda Eco Park are all very close to one another in Sitakunda upazila. There will not be any hustle, and tourists may comfortably visit those locations in a single day. According to this plan, tourist can have hill, forest, waterfall, and sea beach.

To enjoy the trip fullest, tourist have to start so early. The first thing tourist have to be done is to reach Sitakunda early in the morning and have breakfast. After breakfast, rent a CNG from Sitakunda bazzar to Chandrantath Hill. The weather is very comfortable in the morning, so it should not take more than 3-3.30 hours to go around the entire hill.

Then take another CNG and come to Sitakunda eco-park after some rest, the fare will be 250-300 BDT. The green cover of Sitakunda eco-park will not fail to give you the vibe of the jungle and there are 2 waterfalls inside; Supto Dhara waterfall and Sohosrodhara Waterfall. You will definitely see 2 waterfalls and if you want, you can relax in any one of them and relieve all the fatigue of your body.

There are many food shops outside the eco-park, if you want, you can have lunch from there or you can come back to Sitakunda Bazzar with CNG, you can have lunch in the bazzar too. After eating and chasing, you have to rent another cng for Guliakhali Sea Beach. The fare will be 30-40 BDT per person at Guliakhali Sea Beach. Then enjoy the beauty of the unique sea beach rest of the day. At night, you will return to the Bazzar, have dinner there and take a bus to return home. You will not have any trouble catching a bus because busses headed for Chittagong and Dhaka depart from Sitakunda bus stop on a regular basis.

Frequently asked questions

1. Best time to visit?

Whatever one may say, the mountains are beautiful during the monsoon. Moreover, during the monsoon, it seems that the entire Sitakunda upazila spreads the glory of beauty, the springs are full of water, the mountains are fresh, the trees are green, there are clouds in the sky, and the tides are playing in the sea.

2. Nearby attractions?

Get there to learn all the famous tourist places in chittagong district.

3. Biggest hills of Bangladesh?

# Safa Hafong ( 4100 feet +, Bangladesh-Myanmar border hill)
# Tajing dong (3450 feet +)
# jhotlang (3330 feet +)
# Dum long (3310 feet +)
#Jogi Hafong (3250 feet +)
# Keokradong (3230 feet +)
# Maithai Jama Hafong ( 3170 feet +)
# Tolang (3145 feet +)
# Mukrang Thutai Hafong (3125 feet +)
# Kopital Pahar ( 3070 feet +)

Hi, I’m Toukir Khan and I’m Muslim. I’m sorry If I mislead anything relate to Hinduism. I just gather information from my friends and internet and wrote it here. I love to travel and love to assist people to travel. My motive is simple, I want more people come out from home and explore the country. Please be kind, if I set something wrong in the post. Just let me know this, I will correct it as soon as possible.