(Joe Santangelo, age 15, of Nogales, Ariz., for his question:
IS THE GANGES RIVER SACRED?
The Ganges River is the major waterway of the Indian subcontinent. Formed in the southern ranges of the Himalaya in Uttar Pradesh State in India, the Ganges is completely in India except for extensive streams of the eastern delta that are in Bangladesh.
The Ganges is regarded by Hindus as the most sacred river in the world. Many important religious ceremonies are held in a number of cities along its banks.
Each year pilgrims visit holy cities along the banks of the Ganges to bathe in the river and to take home some of its water. Temples line the riverbank and stairways called ghats lead down to the water.
Some pilgrims come to bathe in the water only to cleanse and purify themselves. The sick and crippled come hoping the water will cure their ailments. Others come to die in the river. The Hindus believe those who die in the Ganges will be carried away to Paradise.
The Ganges Basin is one of the most fertile regions of the world and also one of the most densely populated. The river is about 1.,560 miles long. It rises in a snowfield that is located among three Himalayan mountains all more than 22,000 feet high.
The Ganges actually starts from the Bhagirathi River that flows from an ice cave 10,300 feet above sea level. It falls 350 feet per mile. About 10 miles from the source is Gangotri, the first temple on its banks. This is a traditional resort of pilgrims.
At the village of Devaprayag, 133 miles from the source, the Bhagirahi joins the Alknanda to form the Ganges.
The Ganges, after descending 9,276 feet or an average of about 60 feet per mile, flows west to the border of the great plain of Hindustan at Hardwar, 157 miles from its source and 1,024 feet above sea level. From Hardwar it continues south and then south east to Allahabad after a winding course of 488 miles, made unnavigable by shoals and rapids.
At Allahabad, the Ganges is joined by the Jumna River from the south west and from that point the river flows east past Mirzapur, Varanasi, Ghazipur, Patna, Monghyr, and Bhagalpur, receiving on the south the Son River and on the north the Gumti, Ghaghra, Gandak and Kosi rivers.
In the Rajmahal Hills, at the head of the Ganges delta, 563 miles from Allahabad, the river turns south and begins a descent of 283 miles to the Bay of Bengal. A number of religious shrines can be found in this area.
There are a number of defftaic channels as the river nears the sea. The northern portion of the delta is fertile and well cultivated. The southern section consists mostly of swampland, known as the Sundarbans, because of the sundari tree that flourishes there.
The marshes are invested with several species of crocodile. From year to year the Ganges exchanges old channels for new ones, particularly in the alluvial basin of its lower reaches.