Varanasi

Varanasi is not just a city - it is a living cosmology. One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, it has been a centre of learning, philosophy, and devotion for at least 3,000 years. The philosopher Adi Shankaracharya taught here. The Buddha gave his first sermon nearby at Sarnath. Mark Twain, who visited in 1895, called it 'older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together.' The city is built on the western bank of the Ganges, and its 88 ghats - broad stone stairways descending to the river - are the stage on which an entire civilisation conducts its sacred life.

The Ganga Aarti ceremony performed at Dashashwamedh Ghat every evening at dusk is among the most spiritually electric experiences in the world. Dozens of priests in saffron robes swing fire lamps in choreographed arcs, bells ring, conch shells blow, and thousands of pilgrims on boats bobbing in the river watch the flames dance over the holy water. At dawn, a boat ride along the ghats reveals cremation fires burning through the night at Manikarnika Ghat - Hindus believe dying in Varanasi grants moksha, liberation from the cycle of rebirth - alongside bathers, priests, meditating sadhus, and silk weavers setting up their looms.