The Kumbh Mela has been held on the banks of the Ganges for thousands of years.

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We walk to the relative solitude of the banks of the Ganges and sit down.

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The authorities have set up tented camps along the banks of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, but with about 100 million people attending, demand for accommodation is very high.

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It is much harder to mitigate the side-effects of piety in places like India, where Hindu gatherings on the banks of the Ganges (especially a peripatetic cycle of festivals known as Kumbh Mela) attract tens of millions of people.

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Situated on the banks of the Ganges River, Varanasi (formerly Benares) is visited by millions of Hindu pilgrims each year, most coming to cremate a deceased loved one and bathe themselves in the river's horrifically polluted but extremely holy waters.

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