River Ganga

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tHE MOST SACRED AND WORSHIPPED RIVER ON EARTH. The Ganges (pronounced /ˈɡæng-ah/, Sanskrit Ganga pronunciation (help·info), Devanāgarī: गंगा Gaṅgā, as in most Indian languages) is one of the major rivers of the Indian subcontinent, flowing east through the Gangetic Plain of northern India into Bangladesh. The 2,510 km (1,560 mi) river rises in the western Himalayas in the Uttarakhand state of India, and drains into the Sunderbans delta in the Bay of Bengal. It has long been considered a holy river by Hindus and worshiped as the goddess Ganga in Hinduism. It has also been important historically: many former provincial or imperial capitals (such as Patliputra, Kannauj, Kara, Allahabad, Murshidabad, and Calcutta) have been located on its banks. Ganga and its tributaries drain a 1,000,000-square-kilometre (390,000 sq mi) fertile basin that supports one of the world's highest density of humans. The average depth of the river is 52 feet (16 m), and the maximum depth is 100 feet (30 m).