Things to do
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Assi Ghat
At the southern end of the ghat stretch, where the Assi stream joins the Ganges, the steps widen into an open terrace used by students from the nearby Hindu university and by long staying foreigners. A daily programme called Subah-e-Banaras opens the morning with classical music, recitation and yoga from first light. Boats set off from here, and the crowds are thinner than they are downstream.
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Dashashwamedh Ghat
Kashi's principal ghat sits a short walk below the Vishwanath temple, and legend gives it to Brahma, who is said to have sacrificed ten horses on the spot. Each evening priests on raised platforms perform the Ganga Aarti with tiered brass lamps, incense and conch shells. The steps fill an hour beforehand, and a hired rowing boat gives a clearer line of sight.
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Kashi Vishwanath Temple
Shiva is worshipped here as Vishweshwara, lord of the universe, in one of the twelve jyotirlinga shrines that anchor his cult across India. Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore rebuilt the present temple in 1780, and a Sikh maharaja later plated its spire in gold. Cameras, phones and bags are refused at the gate, and the security queue takes longer than the darshan.
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Manikarnika Ghat
Cremation runs day and night on these terraces, tended by the Dom families who keep the fire, because a death in Kashi is held to release the soul from rebirth. The name comes from an earring of the goddess Sati, believed to have fallen at the spot. Photography is forbidden, and strangers who offer a viewpoint over the pyres follow it with a request for firewood donations.
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Sarnath
Ten kilometres northeast of the ghats, on the ground where the Buddha preached his first sermon, a ruined monastic city stands in cut lawns around the brick and stone drum of the Dhamek Stupa. The lion capital Ashoka raised here became the state emblem of India and is kept in the site museum across the road, which with the ruins takes half a morning.