GANGES RIVER. The Ganges (Gaṅgā), considered the holiest of India's rivers, is 1,560 miles long. Rising at Gangotri in the Himalayas, this great river flows through the North Indian plain and into the Bay of Bengal. To Hindus, the...

The Ganges River, or Ganga, as it is known to Hindus, is the great river of India. By the fourth century BCE, the fame of the Ganges had reached the West. Alexander of Macedon (356–323 BCE), who regarded the river as the farthest limit of the...

The Sundarbhans (or Sunderbans) are the densely forested wetlands of the sea-face delta of the combined Ganges and Brahmaputra River, as they empty into the Bay of Bengal. Two-thirds of the area falls within Bangladesh, and the western third in West...

Drawn by a new moon, millions of devout Hindus plunged into the revered Ganges River on Friday, considered one of the most auspicious days for cleansing their sins during the faith's 45-day bathing festival.In wave after wave, a sea of the faithful moved toward the...

An exterminator was sentenced to prison Friday for stealing more than 2,000 exhibits including dolphin, leopard and bat skeletons in Australia's biggest museum theft.Dutch-born Hendrikus van Leeuwen, 50, was sentenced in the New South Wales state District Court to seven years imprisonment for stealing the...

Ash-smeared and naked Hindu saints led millions of devotees Wednesday in a pre-dawn holy dip at the meeting of three major rivers in northern India, starting a weeks-long pilgrimage to wash away their sins.Chanting religious hymns and "Har Har Gange," or "Long Live the Ganges...

Hundreds of Hindu holy men, naked but for the ash smeared on their bodies and an occasional marigold garland, led a sea of humanity to the waters of the Ganges River Monday to wash away their sins at the apex of a weekslong pilgrimage.By midmorning...