A crumbling maze of a city that rises from the ghats (steps) on the western banks of the Ganges, Varanasi is in many senses the quintessential India.Varanasi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Its early history is that of the first Aryan settlement in the middle Ganges valley.

By the 2nd millennium BC, Varanasi was a seat of Aryan religion and philosophy and was also a commercial and industrial centre famous for its muslin and silk fabrics, perfumes, ivory works, and sculpture.

Varanasi was the capital of the kingdom of Kasi during the time of Buddha (6th century BC), who gave his first sermon at nearby Sarnath. The city remained a centre of religious, educational, and artistic activities as attested by the celebrated Chinese traveler Hsüan-tsang, who visited it in c. AD 635 and said that the city extended for about 3 miles (5 km) along the western bank of the Ganges. Varanasi subsequently declined during the three centuries of Muslim occupation, beginning in 1194.

Named after the confluence of two rivers, Varuna and Asi, the city is centered on the ghats that line the waterfront, each honoring Shiva in the form of a linga -- the rounded phallic-like shaft of stone found on every ghat. Cruise the waterfront at dawn and you will witness the most surreal scenes, when devotees come to bathe, meditate, and perform ancient rituals to greet the sun. Or even come at sunset, when pundits (priests) at Dasashwamedh Ghat perform arti (prayer ritual) with complicated fire rituals, and pilgrims light candles to float along the sacred waters.

Earliest accounts of the city go back 8,000 years, and "the city of learning and burning," as it is affectionately referred to, has attracted pilgrims from time immemorial, not all of them Hindu -- even Buddha visited here in 500 B.C. after he achieved enlightenment, sharing his wisdom at nearby Sarnath. Successive raids by Muslim invaders (the last of whom was the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb) led to the destruction of many of the original Hindu temples, which means that most of the buildings here date back no further than the 18th century. Yet the sense of ancient history is almost palpable.