Varanasi

Varanasi also known as Banaras and Kashi, is thought by many to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world, and certainly all agree that the area has been inhabited for more than 2,000 years. It is located on the left bank of the Ganges River and is one of the seven scared cities of the Hindus.

Legendary tradition attributed the city’s founding to Shiva and it is believed that living there for a period of time and bathing in the Ganges, and/or dying there, in what is considered Shiva’s hometown, releases one from the circle of rebirths.

By the beginning of the first millennium BC, the city had become a center for Sanskrit learning, banking, commercial trade and asceticism. It was already an important center of religious learning when the Gautama Buddha (6th century BC) came there to preach his first sermon at nearby Sarnath.

During this period, the Kingdom of Kashi was one of 16 kingdoms to emerge from the ascendant Aryan tribes.

The city remained a centre of religious, educational and artistic activities as attested by the celebrated Chinese traveler Hsuan-Tsang, who visited it in about 635 AD.

In the late 17th century, with the dissolution of the Mughal empire, Varanasi became the seat of an independent Hindu kingdom. It lasted until British annexation in 1794.

The city was further developed to the south and west, masonry bridges were built over the Varan and Asi rivers, streets were broadened and the first census was taken in 1827 to 1828.

In 1949, the district of Varanasi assumed its current form when the Raja of Varanasi ceded his independent Varanasi State to the new Indian nation-state.
Varanasi

Ancient city of Cholula

Cholula, at one time, had been one of the most important pre-Colombian cities on the continent.

It was rising from being a village to being a city of some importance. Cholula was founded by the Toltecs sometime round 1500 BC.  For Toltecs the city was a place for commerce, worship and burial.

It has been continuously occupied and has been a major religious center. The Great Pyramid, Tlachihualtepetl, is the largest pre-Hispanic structure in The World in the terms of volume of construction material.  As the city became a place of power, many of the powerful cultures of Mexico had their turn to rule it - the Olmecs, Toltecs, and later the Aztecs, with whom the city had some alliance.

For centuries, Cholula was considered to be the Tollan or Place of the Tules, from which the various groups of origin had been expelled and to where they return (Cholollan-Tollan).

By the time Cortes passed through Mexico and through Cholula in 1519, the town was already old and fairly large.
Ancient city of Cholula

City of Delphi

The ancient city of Delphi lies immediately to the east of the modern town of Delphi, the former Kastri.

The city of Delphi had been in existence for centuries when in the seventh century BC, it became the capital of the association of Greek states known as the amphictyony. It is a powerful coalition of central Greek states.

The name Delphi may commemorate Apollo’s cult title Delphinios (meaning dolphin or porpoise).

In the middle of the century, a temple to Apollo was erected at Delphi to celebrate the god’s victory over large snake, the python.

Ancient Delphi was the seat of the oracle of Delphi, who made prophecies that effected many events in Greek history; it was an important cultural as well as a religious center.

The site was abandoned after the Orthodox Christian Byzantine Emperor Thoedosius I of Rome ordered all ‘pagan’ celebrations to be abolished, forever.

Delphi was also the location of quadrennial Panhellenic Games which included musical and poetical as well athletic and equestrian contests.
City of Delphi