A living crescent of stone steps along the Ganga — where sunrise prayers, evening fire-rituals, cremation rites and centuries of temple-building all happen on the same riverbank, every single day.
Varanasi — also called Kashi or Banaras — is considered one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth, and its ghats are the reason the city exists where it does. The riverfront is a curved wall of stone steps and terraces built up over centuries, mostly between the 1700s and 1900s, when Maratha, Rajput and other regional rulers — the Peshwas, the Scindias of Gwalior, the rulers of Bhonsle, Amber and Jaipur — financed grand stone ghats, temples and palaces along the water as acts of devotion. Older wooden and earthen embankments existed long before that, going back to when the city first grew around river-crossing points and forest hermitages associated with Shiva worship. Today the ghats are simultaneously a pilgrimage route, a cremation ground, a marketplace, a bathing place, a stage for classical music, and the busiest photograph in India at sunrise.
The single best way to understand Varanasi is to walk the ghats end to end, ideally starting before sunrise. The route runs roughly 6–8 km along the crescent-shaped western bank of the Ganga, from Assi Ghat in the south to Raj Ghat in the north. Locals do it for exercise, pilgrims do it as a ritual circuit (part of the larger Panchakroshi pilgrimage), and visitors do it simply to watch the city wake up: wrestlers training in mud pits, priests setting up marigold garlands, buffaloes bathing, boatmen calling out fares, and incense drifting over cremation smoke near Manikarnika. It's walkable on foot the whole way (steps connect almost every ghat), though a short stretch near Manikarnika sometimes requires a small detour inland.
"The ghat of the ten horse sacrifices"
The most famous and busiest of all Varanasi's ghats, said to mark the spot where Lord Brahma performed ten (dasha) horse (ashwa) sacrifices (medha) to welcome Shiva. It sits at the very centre of the riverfront and connects directly to the old city through the narrow Vishwanath Gali lane market.
This is where the nightly Ganga Aarti is performed — book a rowboat an hour early to watch it from the water.
Where the little Asi stream meets the great Ganga
The southernmost of the major ghats, named after the Asi rivulet that once joined the Ganga here. It has a younger, easier energy — students from nearby Banaras Hindu University, yoga groups, and morning walkers gather under an ancient peepal tree said to house a self-manifested Shiva lingam (Asi Sangameshwar).
Subah-e-Banaras — a newer sunrise counterpart to the evening aarti, with music, yoga and ritual lamps as the sky turns pink.
A pilgrimage to the Himalayas, without leaving the plains
Recognisable instantly by the red-and-white striped Kedareshwar Temple that towers over its steep steps. Tradition holds that a devotee too old or unable to travel to Kedarnath in the Himalayas can receive the same spiritual merit by worshipping Lord Shiva here — hence the ghat's importance for elderly and unwell pilgrims.
Where fires have not gone out for centuries
The holiest and most important of Varanasi's two cremation ghats. Hindus believe that dying in Kashi, or being cremated at Manikarnika, grants moksha — release from the cycle of rebirth — so bodies are brought here from across India, day and night, and the pyres are said never to have stopped burning. According to legend, Lord Vishnu dug the adjoining Manikarnika Kund with his discus while performing penance, and Shiva's earring (manikarnika) fell into it while he watched, giving the ghat its name.
Visitors are welcome to observe respectfully from a distance; photography of cremations is not appropriate.
Built by the Marathas, slowly claimed by the river
Commissioned in the 19th century by the Scindia rulers of Gwalior, this ghat was reportedly so heavy that it partially collapsed into the Ganga during construction — and the Shiva temple built beside it, the Ratneswar Mahadev Temple, has been tilting and sinking into the riverbed ever since, now standing at a dramatic angle half-submerged in water for much of the year. It's one of the most photographed sights on the entire riverfront.
A confluence of five sacred rivers — most of them mythical
Believed to be the meeting point of five rivers — the Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Kirna and Dhutapapa — though only the Ganga is visible today, the rest considered to flow in unseen, underground streams. The ghat carries a striking layer of history: the grand Alamgir Mosque built above it in the 17th century by Emperor Aurangzeb sits on the plinth of an older, dismantled Bindu Madhav Vishnu temple, making it one of the clearest physical records of Varanasi's layered religious history.
Modern infrastructure, opened in 2023
Varanasi's newest and most modern riverfront addition, built on reclaimed land north of the old ghats and opened in November 2023. Where the historic ghats are stone steps and centuries-old temples, Namo Ghat is built for cruise tourism and everyday city life: a proper cruise-ship jetty, boat repair and parking yards, a jogging track, an open-air amphitheatre, wheelchair-friendly ramps, and large sculptures of folded hands (the namaskar gesture) that give the ghat its name and its welcoming character.
Wooden rowboats and small motorboats line almost every ghat, and a boat ride is the classic way to see the riverfront as it was meant to be seen — from the water, looking up at the ghats rather than down at the river.
Sunrise ride: the most popular slot — soft light, temple bells, bathers and boatmen's songs as the city wakes up, usually from Assi or Dashashwamedh.
Sunset ride: timed to end facing Dashashwamedh Ghat just as the Ganga Aarti begins, so you watch the fire ritual from the middle of the river.
Cruise boats: larger diesel cruise vessels, several now departing from the new Namo Ghat jetty, run longer sightseeing routes and, on occasion, multi-day journeys down the Ganga.
Every evening at sunset, seven young priests stand on a raised platform at Dashashwamedh Ghat and perform a synchronised fire ritual: multi-tiered brass lamps swung in wide circles, conch shells blown, bells rung, and Sanskrit hymns chanted in unison, all as an offering of thanks to the river goddess Ganga.
Crowds fill the ghat steps and dozens of boats gather on the water for the best view. Smaller, similar aartis are also held each morning at Assi Ghat as part of Subah-e-Banaras.
Fifteen days after Diwali, all 84+ ghats are lined with an estimated one million oil lamps — widely considered the single most beautiful night of the year in Varanasi.
Massive processions converge on Kashi Vishwanath Temple near Dashashwamedh Ghat, with all-night chanting and worship of Lord Shiva.
A multi-day cultural festival of classical music and dance staged right on the ghat steps in the days before Dev Deepawali.
Re-enactment of Krishna subduing the serpent Kaliya, performed on a specially built stage in the Ganga near Tulsi Ghat.
A dramatic reunion scene from the Ramlila staged near the ghats, drawing enormous crowds each autumn.
Colour, drumming and bhang-laced sweets take over the steps, especially around Assi and Dashashwamedh, the morning of Holi.