Varanasi (Benares)

Varanasi, also called Benares or Kashi, lies on the Ganges in Uttar Pradesh, northern India, and is among the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Once centre of the kingdom of Kashi, it is one of Hinduism's holiest places, known for its riverside ghats, its cremation grounds and the Kashi Vishwanath temple to Shiva. Just to the northeast lies Sarnath, where Buddhist tradition holds that the Buddha gave his first teaching, and tradition places the physician Sushruta, to whom the Sushruta Samhita is attributed, in the city. It has long been a seat of Sanskrit learning; the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Tarthang Tulku taught there in the 1960s.