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Article: Oldest City in the World
- Article from:
- International Examiner
- Article date:
- April 30, 2001
- Author:
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Laly, Amy Dadichandji
International Examiner
04-30-2001
Oldest City in the World
BENARES -- SEEN FROM WITHIN
By Richard Lannoy
University of Washington Press, 1999
Reviewed by Amy Dadichandji Laly
Varanasi -- previously known as Kashi, Kaasi, Benares, and Benaras -- is
the oldest living, continually inhabited, albeit decaying city in the
world. Unlike Jerusalem, Rome, Istanbul, Beijing or Lhasa, Benares--the
spiritual capital of the Hindus--has retained its religious orientations,
rituals, and a way of life for more than 3,000 years. Situated on the
sacred Ganges River in northern India, Varanasi is the city to which devout
Hindus desire to make at least one pilgrimage, and if possible, die there
in ...