Ramnagar Fort

Ramnagar Fort stands on the eastern bank of the Ganga facing Tulsi Ghat, about half an hour by boat from the Varanasi ghats. Maharaja Balwant Singh, ruler of Kashi, built it of red sandstone in the 18th century in a Mughal manner, both as a residence and as a defence, and it is regarded as the ancestral seat of the Maharajas of Banaras.

Fortified walls, arched gates and ornate pavilions enclose a large courtyard with a garden and old cannons. Within the compound are a temple to Ved Vyasa, author of the Mahabharata, and shrines to Durga, Chhinnamastika and the south-facing Dakshin Mukhi Hanuman. The museum shows the royal family's possessions: old manuscripts, furniture and costumes, vintage cars and carriages, palanquins worked in gold and silver brocade, carved elephant saddles, an astronomical clock and an armoury with swords and guns from Burma, Japan and Africa.