Across the Ganga to Ramnagar Fort: Varanasi's Royal Riverside Heritage and a Sunset Worth Planning For
Almost every Varanasi itinerary stays on the western bank — the ghats, the lanes, the temples. Cross the Ganga to the eastern side, though, and a very different chapter of the city's history opens up at Ramnagar Fort, the ancestral seat of the Kashi Naresh. Built in the eighteenth century from the cream-coloured sandstone quarried at Chunar, the fort is a fine example of Mughal-influenced architecture adapted to a riverside setting: carved balconies, open pavilions and long ramparts that look straight across the water at the city skyline. Inside, the Saraswati Bhawan museum holds a collection that surprises most first-time visitors — royal palanquins and elephant howdahs, vintage automobiles, ivory work, old manuscripts and arms, and an elaborate astronomical clock that tracks not only the hour but the positions of the sun, moon and constellations. Time the visit for late afternoon. From the ramparts, the sun dropping behind the Varanasi skyline turns the river into a sheet of beaten copper, and the ghats on the far bank light up one by one — a view of the city that no boat ride from the western side can offer. Ramnagar is also the home of the month-long Ramlila staged here every autumn, part of a performance tradition inscribed on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage. Enthusiasts plan entire trips around it. Coming back into the city, most travellers pair the fort with the Kaal Bhairav temple and then a Banarasi food trail — kachori-sabzi and jalebi in the morning, tamatar chaat through the day, thick lassi in a clay kulhad, and a folded paan to close. The fort is reachable by road bridge year-round, and by boat for those who prefer to arrive from the river.
Compiled by HelloBanaras from public sources: