A misty morning near Manakarnika Ghat, Varanasi, India. Built on the banks of the sacred River Ganges (Ganga), Varanasi, also known as Banaras, Kashi, and "the City of Light," is the world's oldest continuously inhabited city, ancient even at the time of the Buddha. This is Shiva's city on the Ganges, the most sacred of all pilgrimage sites, and to die here is to be released from samsara, the cycle of birth and death. The ghats are the broad flights of steps leading down to the river, where pilgrims bathe and the focus of religious activity..