India’s Ganges River, although notoriously polluted, is believed to have healing, purifying properties—a belief bolstered by tests conducted on the water. In Varanasi, one of the country’s seven sacred cities, locals interact with the river via ghats—stepped platforms leading down into the water—and use them as sites for multiple ceremonies. There are bathing rituals for “purification of sins,” pilgrimages to collect sacred water, and even designated ghats for cremations, where pyres burn 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can see the phenomenon for yourself if you take a boat tour along the Ganges.
