If there be one part of India which we may think of as the shrine of shrines in a land where religion rules all life, it is to be found in a triangle of cities just contained within the map before us. There on the Ganges we see Benares and Patna, and some fifty miles south of Patna the smaller town of Gaya. Benares from prehistoric times has been the focus of Hinduism. Patna was the capital of the chief Gangetic kingdom more than two thousand years ago, when the Greek ambassador Megasthenes, first of the Westerns, travelled thus far into the East. Gaya was the spot where Buddha, seeking to reform Hinduism some six hundred years before Christ, obtained enlightenment, and then migrated to teach at Benares, or rather at Sarnath, now in ruin, some three or four miles north of the present Benares. The peoples of all the vast Indian and Chinese world, from Karachi to Pekin and Tokyo, look to this little group of cities as the centre of holiness, whether they be followers of Brahma or of Buddha. [Sidenote: 3. Buddhist Tope at Sarnath.] [Sidenote: 4. Sculptures at Sarnath.] [Sidenote: 5. Lion-capital at Sarnath.] Old Benares, whose ruins are now known as Sarnath, was a few miles north of the existing city. We have here one of the Buddhist topes of Sarnath, which was the spot to which Buddha removed after he had received enlightenment at Gaya. Here he and his disciples began to teach. We have another view at Sarnath, showing some of the ancient sculptures, and a gigantic lion-capital recently excavated. Its size can be appreciated by noticing the man behind. [Sidenote: 6. Plan of Benares.] [Sidenote: 7. View across the Ganges to the Southern Shore.] [Sidenote: 8. Panchganga Ghat, Benares.] [Sidenote: 9. The Same—another view.] [Sidenote: 10. Palace of the Raja of Bhinga, Benares.] [Sidenote: 11. The Same—another view.] Benares extends for four miles along the northern bank of the Ganges. This bank is here higher than the southern, and descends to the river edge with a steep brink. Down this brink are many flights of steps, known as “ghats,” which we may translate by the word “approaches.” We have already heard the word “ghat” applied to the steep mountain-high brinks of the southern plateau of India, where the upper ground breaks away to the shore of the Arabian Sea on the one hand, and to the low-lying plain of the Carnatic on the other. The city of Benares is situated on the plateau top above the ghats, and for four miles the river front is crowned with palaces and temples, built of a yellow sandstone. The opposite, the southern, shore lies low and without buildings. Here is a view looking southward across the river from the brink edge; it shows the low and non-sacred southern shore. Here are two views of the brink itself, faced and crowned with buildings of yellow sandstone. There follow two views of the palace of the Raja of Bhinga, and in both we see the ghat steps descending to the water’s edge.