Manikarnika Ghat, one of the oldest and most sacred in Varanasi. Manikarnika is main burning ghat and one of most auspicious places that a Hindu can be cremated. Bodies are handled by outcasts known as doms, and they are carried through alleyways of old city to the holy Ganges on a bamboo stretcher swathed in cloth. The corpse is doused in Ganga prior to cremation. You will see huge piles of firewood stack along the top of the ghat, each log carefully weighted on giant scales so that the price of cremation can be calculated. There are no problems watching cremations, since at Manikarnika death is simply business as usual, but don't take photos and keep your camera well hidden.

The Harishchandra Smashan Ghat is a secondary burning ghat. It is one of the oldest ghats in city,this ghat is named after a mythological king Harishchandra ,who once worked the cremation ground here for the preservance of truth and charity but at the end ,God rewarded him and restored his lost throne and his dead son to him. This is one of the two cremation ghats, and some times refered as Adi Manikarnika (the original cremation ground); still there exist Adi Manikarnika Teerth.

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