Along the Ghats

The ghats of Varanasi run for several kilometres along the western bank of the Ganga, a near-continuous line of stone steps, landings and riverfront buildings raised by rulers, merchants and religious orders over centuries. From the water they read as a panorama. On foot they become specific: a shrine at the foot of a staircase, a carved balcony, laundry drying where a ruler once built a palace.

Your guide walks a stretch of the riverfront chosen for the season and your pace, often a section between Assi and Dashashwamedh. You might stop at Tulsi Ghat, linked by tradition to the poet Tulsidas, at the red and white stripes of Kedar Ghat, and at Man Mandir, where Sawai Jai Singh II added an observatory to a palace built for Raja Man Singh of Amber around 1600. The architecture is read alongside the life on the steps: bathers, priests under their umbrellas, boatmen and students.

The walk may pass Harishchandra or Manikarnika, the cremation ghats, where your guide explains the rites and asks you to keep cameras down. In the monsoon the river rises over the lower steps and the path breaks, so the route moves to higher ground or a shorter stretch until the water falls.