Varanasi

The river runs north here, briefly, and the whole city faces it. From Assi at the southern end to Raj Ghat in the north there are close to ninety ghats, each with its own stairs, its own shrine and its own constituency — bathers, wrestlers, launderers, priests, and at Manikarnika and Harishchandra the cremation fires that have not been allowed to go out.

Behind the steps the old city is a lattice of lanes too narrow for a car, opening without warning onto the Kashi Vishwanath complex. It rewards being walked at six in the morning, when the light comes off the water and the lanes belong to milk deliveries and temple bells rather than to traffic.

When to go. October to March. Dev Deepawali, on the November full moon of Kartik, lights every ghat with oil lamps and is the single busiest night of the Varanasi year — book months ahead. Sarnath, where the Buddha gave his first sermon, is ten kilometres away and a deliberately quiet counterweight to the city.