Ghats are steps and platforms at the edges or banks of rivers. Here in Varanasi, they are used for bathing...

... for doing the laundry, from washing and rinsing to stretching the  clothing and textiles out on the  banks in order to dry them in the open air and sun...

... for cremating the dead, both on funeral pyres of wood for the wealthy and in crematoria fueled  with gas for those who can't afford the prescribed sandalwood...

... for deposing off the remnants of the cremated, a job typically assigned to the so-called untouchables  or pariah, unfortunate souls born outside the four regular Hindu castes...

... and for worshiping the river Ganges (fig.), as seen in this evening Aarti (fig.) in which pujari, i.e. brahmin priests, bless the river using dipavriksha (fig.).