Varanasi, or Benares, is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities on earth. It is sometimes referred to as the city of temples or the religious capital of India, but it is also regarded as one of the country's great seats of learning. Finally, it is India's famous city of death.
Whatever the epithet, Varanasi sprawls along the banks of the holy river Ganges in a series of dramatic buttressed ghats. The river here constitutes one of the subcontinent's most polluted waterways, yet each morning thousands come to bathe and offer prayers to the auspicious greenish-brown flow.
Benares' reputation as a city of death is due to the belief that to die here is to attain instant moksha, or liberation from the cycles of reincarnation. People travel a long way for the privilege of ending their days in the Ganges, and the public burning ghats cremate hundreds of bodies each day.
"Benares is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together." Mark Twain once wrote. Yet wander the back streets today and you find men screen printing labels for the latest Ikea range.
Varanasi - India's Ancient City