Panchganga Ghat

By tradition five rivers meet here invisibly (Ganga, Yamuna, Saraswati, Kirana and Dhutpapa), and the shrine of Bindu Madhav stands at the head of the steps beneath the Alamgir Mosque. It is far quieter than Dashashwamedh because nothing here is staged for visitors: the morning rituals belong to the people who live nearby. Both Tulsidas and Kabir are linked to this stretch of stone. In the month of Kartik hundreds of akash-deep (sky lamps for departed souls) are hoisted on bamboo poles above the water, and the ghat becomes something else entirely.

The connoisseur's ghat: deep mythology, saintly history and none of the main-stage crowd