Chittagong, city and port, is situated in southeastern Bangladesh, on the Karnaphuli River, near the Bay of Bengal.

The port was known to the civilized world by the early centuries A.D. and was used by Arakanese, Arab, Persian, Portuguese (who called it Pôrto Grande), and Mughal sailors. Originally part of an ancient Hindu kingdom, Chittagong was conquered (9th cent.) by a Buddhist king of Arakan. It passed (13th cent.) to the Mughal Empire, was retaken (16th cent.) by the Arakanese, and again became part of the Mughal Empire in the 17th cent.

Chittagong became an important commercial center under the Portuguese in the 16th century. It became a possession of the English East India Company between 1760 and 1765. Originally a part of Arakan, it was claimed 60 years later by the emperor of Burma (now known as Myanmar) as a dependency of that territory. The claim was one of the causes of the First Burmese-British War in 1824. Chittagong was part of Pakistan from 1947 until 1971, when it became part of the new nation of Bangladesh.

Nowadays, the city is the commercial center for the surrounding agricultural region, which produces rice, jute, gunny (a coarse fabric), tea, and hides.