COX’S BAZAR & ST’MARTIN

Overview

COX’S BAZAR is one of the world’s longest an unbroken 125 km sandy sea beach. It is located 150 km south of the industrial port Chittagong. Today, Cox’s Bazar is one of the most-visited tourist destinations in Bangladesh, though it is not a major international tourist destination. In 2013, the Bangladesh Government formed the Tourist Police unit to better protect local and foreign tourists, as well as to look after the nature and wildlife in the tourist spots of Cox’s Bazar.

ST. MARTIN ISLAND is a small island (area only 8 km²) in the northeastern part of the Bay of Bengal, about 9 km south of the tip of the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf peninsula, and forming the southernmost part of Bangladesh. There is a small adjoining island that is separated at high tide, called Chera Dwip. It is about 8 kilometers (5 miles) west of the northwest coast of Myanmar, at the mouth of the Naf River. The local names of the island are “Narical Gingira”, also spelled “Narikel Jinjira/Jinjera”, which means ‘Coconut Island’ in Bengali, and “Daruchini Dwip”. It is the only coral island in Bangladesh.