Varanasi

Varanasi popularly called as benaras or Kashi is considered as one of the oldest city of India. Mythologically the city is associated with lord Shiva. Enthralled by the old traditions of Benaras the British author mark twain said "Benaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together". It is a city of temples which is surrounded by holy Ganges. Varanasi has rich cultural traditions and has produced great philosophers, musicians, poets and thinkers.

Demographics
The population of Varanasi is above 4 million. The average literacy is 61% which is higher than the national average. The literacy of male population is higher than the female population. The sex ratio of Varanasi is 908.

Climate Of Varanasi
Since Varanasi is in North India it has hot summer and cold winter. The maximum temperature of Varanasi touches to 46°C during summer season. It has three months of rainfall that is from end June to mid August. The best month to visit Varanasi is between September to march.

How To Reach Varanasi?

• Road : Varanasi is situated on NH 2 which connects Calcutta to Delhi. NH 7 and NH 29 also passes through Varanasi which connects it to Kanyakumari and Gorakhpur respectively. Thus the highways connects Varanasi to different parts of India by good motorable roads.
• Air : Babatnagar is a nearest airport from which direct flight for Varanasi are available from Delhi, Agra, Khajurao, Calcutta, Mumbai, Lucknow and Bhuvaneshwar airport.
• Rail : Varanasi and Mughal Sarai are the important rail junctions, with train connections to all major cities of India. Some important trains are Rajdhani Exp, Toofan Exp, North East Superfast Exp, Magadh Exp, Mahanagari Exp, Pawan Exp, Sabarmati Exp, Ganga Kaveri Exp, Poorwa Exp, Himgiri Exp, Sealdah Exp .

Tourist destinations
Varanasi is the city of temples and Ghats(river fronts). Apart from this there are some other places that attracts tourist from different parts of the world. The important tourist destinations of Varanasi are :

Ghats	Temples	Others
Assi Ghat	Bharat Mata Temple	Bharat Kala Bhavan
Dasaswamedh Ghat	Durga Temple	Kaushambi
Ghat Tulsi Ghat	New Vishwanath Temple	Jantar Mantar
Harish Chandra Ghat Manikarnika	Sankat Mochan Temple	Ramnagar Fort
	Tulsi Manas Temple	Vindhyachal
	Vishwanath Temple	Chunar Fort
		Jaunpur
		Banaras Hindu University
		Chandraprabha Sanctuary

Education
Varanasi has sound education system. There are many secondary schools and colleges. It has one central university and many other colleges which are affiliated to the central university. The major colleges of Varanasi are :

• Banaras Hindu University
• Kashi Vidya Peeth
• Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya
• Higher Tibetan Studies
• Udai Pratap College

Economy Of Varanasi

• Since Varanasi lies on river ganges its soil is fertile due to which it has booming agriculture.
• It has many manufacturing units.
• It has well developed silk and cotton weaving industry.
• There are many brass making units in Varanasi.
• Handicrafts and carpets of Varanasi is famous worldwide.

Major Industries in Varanasi

• Diesel locomotive unit
• Glass beads industries
• Hotel
• Carpet and textile industries