People in a boat on the ganges at Veranassi. People prepare funeral pyres in Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges, which is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, and the holiest of the seven sacred cities in Hinduism. Every day at Manikarnika Ghat, the largest and most auspicious cremation ghat, around 100 bodies are cremated on wooden pyres along the river’s edge. The eternal flame that feeds the fires is said to have been burning for centuries now. Varanasi, India.

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Photo credit: © Michael James Lee / Alamy / Afripics
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