Use of water for irrigation, either when the Ganges floods or by means of gravity canals, has been common since early times. Irrigation has increased the production of such food and cash crops as wheat, sugarcane, cotton, and oilseeds in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. River traffic is insignificant above the Middle Ganges Basin around Allahabad, where railways serve the region, but the rural people of West Bengal and Bangladesh continue to rely on the waterway to transport their agricultural products. Varanasi and Allahabad are holy cities where temples crowd the river banks. From them ghats, or steps, lead down to the water.
Pilgrims go down to bathe or to fill little bottles with the sacred water.
Some of the ghats are burning ghats where the dead are cremated and their ashes scattered on the Ganges. The Learning Company, Inc.