📍 Pilgrimage📍 Spiritual🌊 River

Varanasi Ghats

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India

4.7 (0)

Overview

Nearly ninety stone ghats step down to the Ganga in one of Earth's oldest living cities, where pilgrims bathe at dawn, priests whirl fire at the evening Ganga Aarti, and life and death flow side by side at Dashashwamedh, Assi and Manikarnika. A dawn boat ride past the waking ghats is among India's most unforgettable experiences.

Why visit: The spiritual heart of India — dawn on the Ganga here rearranges you.

History: Kashi has been continuously inhabited for some 3,000 years; Mark Twain famously called it 'older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend'.

Things to do

›Sunrise rowing-boat ride from Dashashwamedh to Harishchandra Ghat
›Evening Ganga Aarti with fire lamps and conch at Dashashwamedh
›Walk the galis of the old city to Kashi Vishwanath Temple
›Sip lassi and eat kachori-sabzi in the old-town lanes
›Day trip to Sarnath where Buddha first taught

Boat RideSpiritual WalkPhotography

Location & MapDirections

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Travel Information

Best time

Oct–Mar

Entry fee

Free (boat rides ₹150–500)

Hours

Always open; Aarti ~6:45 pm

Est. budget

₹300–1000

Duration

1–2 days

Nearby attractions

Within

0.2 km

📍 Temple

4.8

Kashi Vishwanath Temple

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

The Jyotirlinga of Kashi — Shiva's own city's heart, its gold-plated spire now approached by the grand new corridor from the Ganga.

Oct–Mar; Mahashivratri2–4 hrsExplore

2.4 km

📍 Riverside

4.6

Assi Ghat

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

The southernmost great ghat where the Assi meets the Ganga — dawn 'Subah-e-Banaras' ragas, yoga and the young Kashi's café energy.

Oct–Mar2–3 hrsExplore

2.8 km

💎 Hidden Gem📍 Temple

4.2

Bharat Mata Mandir Varanasi

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

A temple with no gods — only a great marble relief map of undivided India, inaugurated by Gandhi in 1936 as a shrine to the motherland.

Year-round1 hrExplore

2.8 km

📍 Temple

4.4

Tulsi Manas Mandir

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

A white-marble Rama temple on the spot where Tulsidas wrote the Ramcharitmanas — its walls inscribed with the entire epic.

Oct–Mar; Sawan jhanki1 hrExplore

3.1 km

📍 Temple

4.6

Sankat Mochan Hanuman Temple

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

Tulsidas's own Hanuman shrine by the Assi stream, where besan laddoos and temple monkeys bless the reliever of troubles.

Oct–Mar; Sangeet Samaroh (Apr)1 hrExplore

4.7 km

📍 Fort

4.2

Ramnagar Fort

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

The Kashi Naresh's 1750 sandstone fort across the Ganga, its eccentric museum of vintage cars, palanquins and astronomical clocks.

Oct–Mar; Ramlila (Sep–Oct)2–3 hrsExplore

5.6 km

📍 Temple

4.5

New Vishwanath Temple BHU

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

The tallest temple tower in India (253 ft) rising from Banaras Hindu University's green campus, open to all faiths by Malaviya's design.

Oct–Mar1–2 hrsExplore

8.2 km

📍 Buddhist Site

4.7

Sarnath

Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh

The deer park where the Buddha preached his first sermon — Dhamek stupa, Ashoka's lion-capital pillar and monasteries of every Buddhist nation.

Oct–Mar; Buddha PurnimaHalf dayExplore

24.5 km

💎 Hidden Gem📍 Fort

4.2

Chunar Fort

Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh

A sandstone crag fort commanding a Ganga bend since Vikramaditya's age — fought over by Sher Shah, Humayun and the Company.

Oct–MarHalf dayExplore