Varanasi has been the religious capital of Hinduism through all recorded time. No one knows the date of the city's founding, but when Gautam Buddha came here in 550 BC to deliver first teaching, he found an ancient and developed settlement. Contemporary with Babylon, Nineveh and Thebes, Varanasi has been called the oldest continuously inhabited city on earth .
# Alamgir MosqueOverlooking the Ganges from a dramatic high point, the Alamgir Mosque is a creation of the Mogul emperor Aurangzeb. Destroying the 17th-century temple Beni Madhav ka Darera, which had been dedicated to Vishnu, Aurangzeb built this mosque with an odd fusion of Hindu (lower portions and wall) and Muslim (upper portion) designs. Panchganga Ghat, down below, is an important bathing point, particularly on Makar Sankranti (January 14), when the sun crosses the Tropic of Capricorn as the earth shifts on its axis following the winter solstice. Ei From Dashashvamedh or Manikarnika ghats, head north along the river; the mosque towers above Panchganga Ghat.
# Bharat Kala Bhavan Museum# No one interested in Indian art should miss this museum on the campus of Banaras Hindu University, just south of Varanasi's traditional boundary. The permanent collection includes textiles, excellent Hindu and Buddhist sculptures, and miniature paintings from the courts of the Moguls and the Hindu princes of the Punjab Hills. One sculpture with particular power is from Varanasi's immediate area a 4th-century Gupta-dynasty frieze showing Krishna (an incarnation of Vishnu) holding up Mt. Govardhan to protect his pastoral comrades from the rain. Have your car or rickshaw wait, as transport can be hard to find on the university's sprawling campus. Eg Banaras Hindu University, Lanka.
# Chausath Yogini TempleThe interesting temples between Prayag and Asi ghats include this one, which is at the top of a particularly steep set of steps by the ghat of the same name. Originally devoted to a tantric cult that is also associated with an important ruined temple at Khajuraho, it's now devoted to Kali (the goddess most popular with Bengalis), who is known here simply as Ma Mother. The worshipers here now are mainly widows from Varanasi's Bengali quarter; in the early morning you'll see these women coming for the darshan (vision) of Kali after bathing in the Ganges.
# Dashashvamedh GhatAbout 70 stepped ghats line a 4-mi stretch of the Ganges, effortlessly wedding the great Hindu metropolis to the river. Numerous lingas remind pilgrims that they're under Shiva's care here. If you decide to hire a boat, an essential Varanasi experience, go to Dashashvamedh Ghat, the unofficial main ghat for most purposes. The best time to see the ghats is at sunrise, when a solemn group of people and even animals lit by the sun's darkly golden first rays hover on the water's edge, bent on immersion in the holy stream. As you float on the river, you'll see young bodybuilders exercising: these are members of some of the city's many wrestling clubs. Older men sit cross-legged in meditation or prayer, and pandas seated under huge umbrellas offer prayers for their pilgrim clients. Some devotees drink from the polluted water. A carcass may even float by head east to the water from Godaulia Crossing, the central traffic circle in the Chowk district.
# Dhobi GhatAt the Dhobi Ghat, south of Dashashvamedh, washer men and -women do early-morning laundry by beating it against stones in the river while their donkeys bray disconsolately on the bank. This may be the sight that moved Mark Twain to declare that ìa Hindu is some-one who spends his life trying to break stones with wet clothes.
# Durga TempleDedicated to the goddess Durga, Shiva's consort, this y shrine stands beside a large, square pool of water du west of As Ghat. The shikhara is formed on top of five lower spires, a convergence symbolizing the belief that all five elements of the world (earth, air, wind, water, and ether) merge with the supreme. This shrine is also called the Monkey Temple the pests are everywhere, and they'll steal anything.
The Vaatika Cafe on the riverbank at As Ghat serves excellent pizza made with yak-milk cheese from Nepal, as well as pasta dishes, bona fide espresso, and other unlikely delicacies.
# Gyanvapi MosqueMogul emperor Aurangzeb pulled down the original Vishveswara Temple to erect this mosque, and the building's foundation and rear still show parts of the original temple. The tallest of the mosque's minarets, which dominated the skyline of the holy city, collapsed during a flood in 1948. The surrounding area just next to Kashi Vishvanath, the Golden Temple has been the focus of Hindu revivalist attempts to deconsecrate the site of the former temple, and is currently staffed with police and fenced with barbed wire. It's normally very sedate, however, and is an important starting point for Hindu pilgrims.