Haridwar, the place itself holds a significance of Lord Hari. In ancient sanskrit ‘hari’ means ‘lord’ and the word ‘dwar’ means ‘door’. Hindu pilgrims believe it as a most sacred place considering the fact of being called Haridwar and having the banks of the spiritual Ganga(Ganges) river across the city. Haridwar is mostly a pilgrim tourist place in Haridwar district in the state of Uttarakhand in India.The place comes under one of the most followed tours ‘Chardham yatra’ in the country to visit the great Gangothri along with Yamunothri, Kedarnath and Badrinath.
Haridwar is one of the places where every religious hindu person would wait to go and take a divine bath in the river ganga which is believed that all the sins that a person commits gets washed away. People of various ages visit this place to take the blessings of lord and this is the reason the place is considered one of the most visited places in the country.
Local people do business with the tourists by providing their services. People from various places also come here to do business and get some good profits. In this place we can see people like to visit ganga ghats and temples located in the spiritual land. Due to this reason we can locate a lot of local rickshaw drivers ready to give rides.
We can also locate so many hotels and restaurants in this place which are very essential in a tourist place like Haridwar. But people still have a doubt on the places that we should visit once we reach haridwar. So let us discuss the places to visit in haridwar.
1. Ganga Ghat
Ganga Ghat is something that you never want to miss if you ever visit the spiritual city in your life. The most essential Ganga bath and leaving a lamp in the water is the most beautiful thing every person wishes to do here. Ganga ghats are so peaceful and beautiful as the spiritual water reaches the place traveling from the most important Himalayas of Indo-Tibetan Border of the North-East part of the country.
Har Ki Pauri Ghat is one of the special ghats where most of the people visit. The speciality of this ghat is, it is believed that few drops of the most valued Amrit fell from the heaven when the Samudra Manthan was taking place between the devas and asuras considering the Indian mythology.
2. Ganga Aarti
Every night there will be the most loved Ganga aarti at the ganga ghats across the banks of Ganges river. The spiritual practice consists of a lot of positivity that even people across the world visit the place to be a part of this practice at least for once. Devotees across the world come here at the evening time when it gets darker and they light a lot of lamps and start doing aarti which is a traditional practice followed from ages.
The sight will be really amazing to experience. Thousands of lamps floating in the water and another thousands of people doing the practice with another set of lamps in their hands.
3. Visiting Temples
Haridwar has numerous temples to visit that even if you take a complete day to visit each of them you will end up not visiting a few of them. There are few specific temples which most of the devotees and tourists visit and they are Shri Ganga Mandir, Shri Mata Manasa Devi Mandir, Bilkeshwar Mahadev Temple, Maa Chandi Temple, Maya Devi Temple, Pavan Dham and many more in the list. Each temple here has its own stories and spirits that are followed. They have a very good art and culture which attracts every tourist visiting it.
4. Sapthashri Ashram
Sapthashri Ashram is an old traditional school for the poor children. Here the students have accommodation facilities and also a Sanskrit school where they can learn the ancient scriptures and get educated. This school was formed in the year 1943 by Guru Goswami Datt on the banks of Ganga river. The school is built at the place where the spiritual river divides into seven streams and that’s the reason this school is called as Sapthashri Ashram where Saptha means seven.
5. Rajaji National Park
Rajaji National Park is a national park of India and a wildlife sanctuary in the country. It covers three districts of state Uttarakhand and they are Haridwar, Dehradun and Pauri Gharwal. This park is named after the prominent leader named Rajagopalachari the Bharat Ratna awardee.
6. Crystal World
An amusement park called ‘Crystal World’ is also located in Haridwar where you can go and enjoy with your family and friends. This place is mostly suitable for the children and young people where they can have a great time enjoying all the services provided by the amusement park of this location.
These are the few ancient and modern places to visit in Haridwar and these places have their own specialities. The ancient temples carry the traditions and beliefs from ancient Indian mythology. Hope this article was helpful to know the basic places to visit in the spiritual city.