10 Interesting Facts About Varanasi

1. Varanasi has been known at various times in history as Benares or Kashi, “City of Light”
2. Varanasi is one of the most sacred cities in the world today
3. It is a crumbling maze of a city that rises from the ghats (steps) on the western banks of the Ganges
4. Varanasi is named after the confluence of two rivers, Varuna and Asi
5. Varanasi is seen by devotees, as the holiest of Indian pilgrimages, home of Shiva, where the devout come to wash away their sins
6. It is also one of the holiest tirthas (literally a “crossing” or sacred place where mortals can cross over to the divine, or the gods and goddesses come to bathe on earth), where many return to die in the hope that they may achieve moksha, the salvation of the soul from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth
7. Mark Twain famously described Varanasi as “older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend, and looks twice as old as all of them put together”
8. Varanasi is centered on the ghats that line the waterfront, each honoring Shiva in the form of a linga—the rounded phalliclike shaft of stone found on every ghat
9. Pilgrims come to the Varanasi ghats lining the River Ganges to wash away a lifetime of sins in the sacred waters or to cremate their loved ones
10. Varanasi is the quintessential India – colourful, chaotic, dirty, overwhelming, and yet magical