Varanasi
Hinduism'S Holiest City, One Of The Seven Sacred Cities (Sapta Puri); Home Of The Kashi Vishwanath Jyotirlinga · Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth and Hinduism's holiest, strung along the west bank of the Ganges as a continuous line of stone steps called ghats. Hindus come to bathe, to pray, and to die here, because death in Kashi is believed to release the soul from rebirth, so cremation is not hidden: at Manikarnika the pyres burn day and night in full view. That is the thing to be ready for. The rest of the city is a knot of narrow lanes, temples, silk weavers, cows and motorbikes, backing onto nearly eighty ghats that run for several kilometres. The two moments nobody should miss are a rowing boat on the river at sunrise, when the bathers come down, and the evening aarti at Dashashwamedh, a fire ceremony performed every night to a packed riverbank. It is loud, crowded, dirty and completely absorbing, and it rewards staying on the river rather than rushing through. Sarnath, where the Buddha first taught, is just outside. In the monsoon the river rises over the ghats and boats stop.
Dashashwamedh Ghat Road, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, 221001, India
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The ghats are open around the clock, every day. The evening aarti at Dashashwamedh starts at dusk, so its clock time moves through the year, roughly 6 to 7 pm in summer and earlier in winter; arrive an hour before. The Assi morning programme starts before sunrise. Temples, including Kashi Vishwanath, open before dawn, close for a period in the early afternoon and reopen for the evening; queues peak on Mondays and festival days. The Sarnath site opens roughly sunrise to sunset and its museum closes one day a week. In the monsoon, boats are often suspended by order and the aarti moves to higher ground. The traps: arriving at the aarti too late for a place, and assuming boats run in July to September. Confirm all times locally.