In Varanasi, Hindus and Muslims pray in close proximity in one of the most sensitive contested holy sites outside the Middle East.

The Kashi Vishwanath Hindu temple sits across a narrow alley from the Gyanvapi mosque, built in the 17th century on the site of an older Shiva temple. 

Shortly after midnight on February 1, Hindu worshippers entered the grotto-like cellar of Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi, northern India, and held prayers for the first time in more than three decades. Hours earlier, a district court had approved a legal petition by Hindus to allow the acts of devotion to go ahead.

The mosque was built in the 17th century by Emperor Aurangzeb. Hindu nationalists have long contended that a temple devoted to the god Shiva at the site was demolished by India’s then-ruling Mughals, who were Muslim. Today Hindus and Muslims worship in proximity; an alley just a few feet wide separates the mosque from the Kashi Vishwanath Hindu temple, built in its latest version in 1780.