The Alamgir Mosque, also called Aurangzeb's Mosque, stands in Varanasi on a prominent site above Panchaganga Ghat, with broad steps leading down to the Ganges. Emperor Aurangzeb conquered Varanasi in 1669, and the mosque was completed in the 1670s. He named it after his title Alamgir, adopted when he became Mughal emperor. The style blends Indo-Islamic and Hindu architecture.
It has many high domes and had two minarets. In the nineteenth century the English scholar James Prinsep restored the deteriorating minarets. In 1948 one minaret collapsed during floods, killing a few people, and the other was later demolished for security reasons.
The ghat below is where five streams are said to meet, and each October lamps are lit on a bamboo staff to guide ancestors. It is an active mosque.
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