Varanasi

A city that faces the river

Varanasi is known by three names: Kashi, its oldest; Banaras, the one people use every day; and Varanasi, the official one. It is built along the west bank of the Ganga where the river bends north. More than 80 ghats, flights of stone steps down to the water, run for about 6–7 km from Assi in the south to Raj Ghat in the north. People bathe, pray, wash clothes, practise wrestling and cremate their dead on them, often within sight of each other. The old city climbs up behind the ghats in lanes too narrow for cars, and the far bank is left as open sand.

Getting your bearings

Most first-time visitors stay somewhere between Assi Ghat and Dashashwamedh Ghat. Assi is the easy-going southern end, with cafés, guesthouses and a dawn programme of music and prayer. Dashashwamedh, about 3 km downstream, is the busy centre: the evening Ganga aarti, the Godowlia crossing and the lanes up to Kashi Vishwanath. When the river is low you can walk between the two along the ghats in about an hour. Traffic is often stopped short of Godowlia, so expect to walk the last stretch or take a cycle-rickshaw.

A good first two days

Take a boat at first light, when the ghats fill with bathers and the sun rises straight onto the steps. Walk back through the lanes for kachori and jalebi, then queue for Kashi Vishwanath after leaving your phone in a locker. Spend the afternoon at Sarnath, about 10 km north-east, where the Buddha gave his first sermon, and come back for the evening aarti. On day two, cross the river to Ramnagar Fort and give the evening to the quieter ghats south of Dashashwamedh.

Before you go

Manikarnika and Harishchandra are working cremation ghats. You can watch quietly from a distance, but do not photograph the pyres, and ignore anyone who asks you for money for firewood. Agree the boat fare and how long the ride lasts before you step in. Cover shoulders and knees near temples. From July to September the Ganga rises over the lower steps; the police often stop boats, and the aarti moves to higher ground. In December and January, thick fog regularly delays trains and flights.

Eating

Almost everything you will want to eat here is vegetarian. Start the day with kachori sabzi, have tamatar chaat near Godowlia in the evening, a thick lassi in a clay cup, and a Banarasi paan to finish. The food page goes dish by dish, and where to eat lists the shops.