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A busy shore along the Ganges River in Varanasi, India
About this photograph
- Creator
- Margery H. Freeman
- Date created
- Unknown
- Location
- Varanasi, India
- License
- This photograph copyright ©2007. Terms of use
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- Search LEARN NC for boats, Ganges River, Hinduism, India, and Varanasi.
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Hundreds of people crowd on the shore of the Ganges River in Varanasi, India. On a set of steps called a ghat, bathers, pilgrims, and people washing clothes gather. Umbrellas dot the shore, and the smoke from a cooking fire spirals into the sky. Dozens of long slender boats nose up to shore. Many of them are painted white with an orange triangular pattern. Behind the steps, a chaotic jumble of buildings rises above the river.
For Hindus, the Ganges River is the personification of the goddess Ganga and is therefore sacred. They bathe in it, wash their clothes and cooking dishes in it, and even drink from it. However, high levels of contaminants in the river including sewage, trash, and even half-cremated corpses make the Ganges one of the most polluted rivers in the world and a potential health hazard to those who come in contact with it.
