VARANASI
Varanasi easily features among the most ancient and revered cities around the globe. The city is a holy pilgrimage site of Hindus and sprawling along the left bank of the river Ganga. For its shrines, temples and palaces, this immensely revered city is easily ranked among the most fascinating cities in the east. A great number of Hindu devotes throng the city from all parts of the globe to realize the true spiritual and divine essence of the city. Varanasi is also a city of fairs and festivals, celebrating about four hundred of them during the year. A tour to Varanasi takes tourists to a place of “Nirvana” where the soul and mind reaches to a higher crescendo of peace and spiritual satisfaction. From the very ancient time, Varanasi has been a popular place as a centre of learning. And even today, this higher status of learning and the tradition is kept alive by the Benaras Hindu University, founded in 1916.
Sightseeing at Varanasi
There is a wide array of tourist attraction in Varanasi which attracts tourists and Hindu devotes from all across the globe. Some of these tourists’ attractions of Varanasi are:
The Ghats
Varanasi has a great number of ghats and these ghats are the major attractions of Varanasi. The city holds around hundred ghats and each of them carries a lingam and occupies its own special place in the religious geography of the city. The ghats here are known for their early-morning bathers, Brahmin priests offering puja and people practicing meditation and yoga. Besides being used for for bathing, there are quite a few 'burning ghats' were bodies are cremated.
Durga Temple
Durga Temple is an eighteenth century temple and also known as the Monkey Temple due to numerous belligerent monkeys that reside here. Built in a common north Indian style, the temple has finely carved columns and attracts devotes in good numbers.
Bharat Mata Temple
Bharat Mata Temple attracts tourists not for its gods and goddesses rather it houses a huge relief map in marble of the whole of Indian subcontinent and Tibetan plateau.
Tulsi Manas Temple
Dedicated to Lord Rama, the temple is located at the place where Tulsidas, the great medieval seer, resides and written the great epic "Shri Ramcharitmanas".
Besides them, Varanasi has many other attractions to attract tourists from all parts of the globe. Other tourists’ attraction in the city are the Emperor Aurangzeb's Mosque, the sacred bull, the well of knowledge Vishwanath Temple, Benaras Hindu University with its marble Shiva temple.
How to reach Varanasi
By Air
Well connected to Delhi, Khauraho, Lucknow, Mumbai by air.
By Rail
Ahmedabad, Cochin, Delhi, Gwalior, Kolkata, Madras, Mumbai, Tirupati, Puri are well linked by railways to Varanasi.
By Road
Varanasi, on NH 2 from Kolkata to Delhi, and NH 29 to Gorakhpur is well connected to the rest of the country by good motorable roads. Some of the major road distances are : Agra - 565 km, Allahabad - 128 km, Bhopal - 791 km, Bodhgaya - 240 km, Kanpur - 330 km, Khajuraho - 405 km, Lucknow - 286, Patna - 246 km, Sarnath - 10 Km.
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