Home / Ghats / The 84 Ghats of Varanasi — A Complete Overview
Every ghat on the riverfront, in one placeVaranasi's riverfront is traditionally described as having 84 ghats, stretching roughly five kilometres along the western bank of the Ganga from Assi Ghat in the south to Raj Ghat and Adi Keshava Ghat in the north. Every one of them now has its own page on this site, from the handful of famous landmark ghats to the smaller, mostly residential stretches of steps in between.
The number 84 is itself a traditional figure rather than a precise modern count — ghats have been renamed, rebuilt, merged, split and occasionally lost to the river over the centuries, so different sources list slightly different totals. What hasn't changed is the character of the place: a handful of major ghats — Dashashwamedh, Manikarnika, Assi, Panchganga — anchor the riverfront with temples, cremation rites and the nightly Ganga Aarti, while dozens of smaller ghats in between are used day to day by the people who actually live along this stretch, for bathing, laundry and the ordinary business of a working river.
Most of the ghats were built or rebuilt between the 18th and 19th centuries, largely under the patronage of Maratha, Rajput and other regional royal families — the Scindias of Gwalior, the Holkars of Indore, the rulers of Jaipur, Darbhanga and Bundi among them — who competed, in effect, to attach their name permanently to the holiest stretch of the Ganga. That pattern of royal patronage is one of the clearest threads running through the individual ghat pages on this site.
Use the full list below, or the main Ghats index, to browse every ghat in detail — each page covers its location, history where it's documented, and what makes it worth a stop.
27 major and 60 smaller ghats — the full traditional 84
roughly 5 kilometres, Assi Ghat to Raj Ghat
a sunrise or sunset heritage boat ride along the full stretch
84 is the traditional, commonly cited figure, though the exact count varies by source depending on how renamed, merged or very short ghats are counted. This site documents every named ghat we could verify along the riverfront, major and minor alike.
Southern end of the riverfront, at the Assi–Ganga confluence
Religious GhatCentral riverfront, below Vishwanath Gali
Cremation GhatCentral riverfront, between Dashashwamedh and Scindia Ghat
Cremation GhatSouth-central riverfront, between Kedar Ghat and Hanuman Ghat
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