Varanasi – The Eternal City. Â The holy city of the Hindus is an intensely religious place. At first sight, a quite ordinary Indian city, it gets amazing when you get down to the Ganges river!
Life in Varanasi is centered around the “ghats” – the stairs leading down to the sacred Ganges river.
Every evening, huge crowds of city residents and tourists gather by the Dashashwamedh Ghat for the evening ceremony, where a group of priests perform the Agni Pooja – an amazing spectacle rich in fire, colours and sound. The river is also a sacred burial site, where people travel from far to bury their dead, usually by burning the body by the river, and letting the water wash away the ashes.
After a good night’s sleep , city residents return to the river by sunrise to take their morning baths, purifying body and soul according to the tradition. This morning ceremony is also a massive tourist attraction, drawing thousands of tourists every day.
Being an intensely religious place, Varanasi is also crowded with temples. Some of them are almost completely off bounds for foreigners, while cameras are generally banned in all temples. Any pictures must be taken from outside the compound, which can be challenging.
Varanasi is also the site of the Sanskrit University and the Hindu University.
