India's UNESCO Dossier Names 84 Ghats Along Varanasi's 6.5 Kilometre Riverfront and the District Website Says 88, and Here Is What Official Pages Give for the Aarti, Boats, Temple Hours and Routes

India’s submission to UNESCO puts the Ganga riverfront of Varanasi at 6.5 kilometres and names 84 ghats, the stepped landings that lead down to the water. The Varanasi district website says the city has 88. We read the UNESCO entry, the district page, the Ministry of Tourism’s Incredible India pages, the Kashi Vishwanath temple trust’s pages, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) and the airport authority’s page on 8 October 2026, and where no official page gave a time or a fee we left it out.

How many ghats, and why the count differs

The UNESCO tentative-list entry, “Iconic Riverfront of the Historic City of Varanasi”, was submitted by India’s Permanent Delegation on 13 April 2021. It lists 84 ghats by name, starting with Assi and ending with Adi Keshava, and says that although the stretch looks continuous, the ghats were built at different times and each has around 40 to 60 stone steps. It dates the first stone-stepped ghats to the 14th century and says most of the palatial buildings above them went up under Maratha patronage in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The district page, last updated on 29 June 2020, says “The city has 88 ghats”, that most were rebuilt after 1700 AD when the city was part of the Maratha empire, and that many are privately owned. It names the patrons as the Marathas, Shindes, Holkars, Bhonsles and Peshwas. We found no document that explains the gap between 84 and 88.

The four ghats most visitors ask about

Dashashwamedh is the ghat of the evening aarti. UNESCO calls it the most important and active ghat for historical depth and continuity of tradition. Incredible India says Brahma performed ten Ashwamedh sacrifices here at Lord Shiva’s request, and gives the ghat as open 24 hours.

Assi sits at the southern end. Incredible India says the Assi river meets the Ganga there, and UNESCO calls it the former confluence. Incredible India adds that the ghat is believed to have been blessed by Shiva and Parvati.

Manikarnika lies between Dashashwamedh and Scindia ghats, according to Incredible India, which calls it one of the holiest cremation sites in Hindu tradition. The page says the northern section is paved and used for bathing rituals, while the southern part is reserved for cremations. UNESCO says it contains what is considered the holiest spot in the city. Harishchandra is the other cremation ghat: the district page says two ghats are reserved for cremation, and the Press Trust of India named Manikarnika and Harishchandra when it reported cremations moved to raised platforms during the August 2025 flood. These are working funeral sites. No official page we opened sets out rules for visitors watching or photographing them.

UNESCO’s text adds a traditional list. It names five ghats as the most merit-giving, called Panchatirthi, first mentioned in the Matsya Purana around the 6th century: Asi, Dashashvamedha, Manikarnika, Panchaganga and Adi Keshava. Harishchandra is not among them.

The evening Ganga Aarti

Incredible India says the aarti is held every evening at Dashashwamedh and “lasts forty-five minutes”. Priests in kurta and dhoti stand on five raised platforms, with conch shells, bells, brass cymbals, mantras and brass lamps lifted in tiers. The head priest of the Gangotri Seva Samiti leads, the page says. Visitors can float small lamps on leaf boats, and the ritual can be watched from the steps or from boats moored off the ghat.

Neither Incredible India nor the Varanasi Development Authority’s page gives a start time or a fee, and we have not printed times from private sites. Ask locally for the day’s time. When the river floods, the ceremony moves. The Press Trust of India reported on 4 August 2025 that it was being held on rooftops.

Mornings at Assi Ghat

Subah-e-Banaras, the dawn programme at Assi, began on 24 November 2014, according to its official site, which credits Pranjal Yadav, whom it names as the district magistrate, and Dr Ratnesh Verma of the Regional Cultural Center. It runs daily before sunrise, starting in the Brahma Muhurta (the pre-dawn period in Hindu reckoning), and the site says the exact time depends on season and dawn hours. The programme has five parts: Vedic chanting, a morning aarti, a Vedic yagya (fire ritual), morning ragas by classical and semi-classical artists, and yoga. The site says it stays free through voluntary support. For the river water itself, our piece on the Ganga clean-up sets out what the pollution board measures, Assi Ghat included.

Boats, and when they stop

Incredible India recommends a dawn boat ride and the district page calls the morning ride across the ghats a popular attraction. We found no official fare list, so we give no prices.

Boats stop when the river rises. The Press Trust of India reported on 4 August 2025 that all boat movement was halted with the Ganga at 72.1 metres, about 0.84 metres above the 71.262 metre danger level. On 22 August 2026 the Asian News International reported that the district administration had banned all boats with the river at 68.74 metres and rising 20 millimetres an hour, and that Manikarnika cremations had moved to higher ground. We found no notice saying when service resumed, so check before you travel in the monsoon months.

The Kashi Vishwanath corridor and the temple

PIB records that Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated phase 1 of Shri Kashi Vishwanath Dham on 13 December 2021, built at a cost of around Rs 339 crore after a foundation stone was laid on 8 March 2019. Its stated purpose was a pathway from the temple to the river bank, for pilgrims who bathe in the river and carry Gangajal (Ganga water) to the temple, and who had been passing through congested streets. PIB gives 23 new buildings, a site of about 5 lakh square feet against 3,000 earlier, and says the project bought or acquired more than 300 properties and rehabilitated about 1,400 shopkeepers, tenants and homeowners with no case pending in any court. It also says more than 40 ancient temples were rediscovered and restored. The Prime Minister said on the day that 50,000 to 75,000 devotees can now visit the temple and its premises.

The project is disputed locally. Scroll reported in July 2022 that residents, among them shopkeeper Vijay Tiwari, said shrines were demolished and idols displaced, and that they had not been consulted. The project’s chief executive, Sunil Kumar Verma, told Scroll that about 400 structures were demolished, that 27 temples had been set up to house idols, and that the cost had risen from Rs 600 crore to Rs 900 crore including compensation.

On visiting, the trust’s FAQ says entry from the Ganga side is through Gate No. 1, from 6 am to 9 pm, and that entry is free, with a special darshan ticket at Rs 300 per person. Sugam Darshan, also Rs 300, includes a priest escort near the sanctum, a prasad box and a locker. There is no dress code beyond decent clothes. Mobile phones, other gadgets and pens are not allowed inside, and free lockers are available. Aarti bookings cannot be cancelled.

The temple’s own pages disagree on hours by up to 30 minutes, and neither gives a revision date. The rituals page says the temple opens at 2.30 am, with Mangala Aarti from 3 to 4 am, darshan from 4 to 11 am and from noon to 7 pm, Sapta Rishi Aarti from 7 to 8.30 pm, and closing at 11 pm. The FAQ gives 3 am to 11 pm, a reporting time of 2.30 am for Mangala Aarti, midday Bhog Aarti from 11.15 am to 12.20 pm, Sapta Rishi from 7 to 8.15 pm and Shringar Aarti from 9 to 10.15 pm. Incredible India gives 2.30 am to 11 pm. The trust’s home page says the temple was built in 1780 by Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore, Incredible India calls the 1780 work a restoration under her, and the same page dates the temple’s roots to the 11th century.

When to go

Incredible India says the most pleasant time is October to March. Its Dashashwamedh page gives January as the coolest month, at 4.5 to 27.9 degrees Celsius, and May as the hottest, at 20.8 to 45.2. The same page recommends Dev Deepavali, held fifteen days after Diwali, when the ghats are lit with thousands of lamps and fireworks. The August boat bans in 2025 and 2026 fall in the monsoon.

Getting there

Incredible India says Lal Bahadur Shastri International Airport (VNS) is about 25 kilometres from the city centre. The Airports Authority of India page gives its address as Babatpur, Varanasi 221006 and carries no flight schedule. Madhya Pradesh Tourism lists a Khajuraho link to Varanasi, as our Khajuraho guide notes.

For rail, Incredible India lists four stations: Varanasi Junction (BSB), Banaras (BSBS), Pt. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction (DDU) and Kashi (KEI). It names Varanasi Junction as the nearest to each ghat and the temple, and the trust’s FAQ does the same and adds the Chaudhary Charan Singh Bus Stand. We did not open Indian Railways timetable pages and give no train numbers.

By road, the district page puts Varanasi about 800 kilometres from New Delhi and 700 from Kolkata, and Incredible India lists Prayagraj, Ayodhya, Lucknow, Bodh Gaya and Gorakhpur as nearby destinations. For the Himalayan end of the same river’s pilgrimages, see our Char Dham guide.