History & Background
Named after Captain Hiram Cox, a British East India Company officer who administered the area in the late 1700s and worked to resettle Arakanese refugees, the town grew around his memorial market ("Cox's Bazar"). What was a quiet fishing settlement developed through the 20th century into Bangladesh's premier beach resort, especially after independence when domestic tourism expanded rapidly. Today its flat, gently sloping sands run essentially unbroken from Cox's Bazar town south toward Teknaf, making it the longest natural sea beach on Earth.