Grand Bassin in Mauritius, the sacred crater lake of Ganga Talao

Grand Bassin in Mauritius is a crater lake that Hindus call Ganga Talao

Grand Bassin is a lake in a volcanic crater about 550 m above sea level in the Savanne district of Mauritius, at 20°25′05″S 57°29′31″E. Mauritian Hindus know it as Ganga Talao, the lake of the Ganges, and it is an important Hindu site, high in the uplands of Savanne.

The lake took the name Ganga Talao in 1972, when water from the Ganges was mixed into it, and it was declared a sacred lake in 1998. Before 1972 it was known as Pari Talao, after a folk tale of fairies dancing on the water at night.

Grand Bassin is not in Chamarel. The lake lies on the far side of the Plaine Champagne plateau, just beyond the Pétrin end of the Black River Gorges National Park, so it is the natural end of a drive along the plateau road rather than a separate day out.

The Grand Bassin temples and the two 33 m statues

The temples and shrines of Grand Bassin stand around the shore of Ganga Talao, and two statues 33 m tall, Shiva as Mangal Mahadev and the goddess Durga, rise on either side of the main road in from the east.

Mangal Mahadev shows Shiva standing with his trident at the entrance to Ganga Talao. The statue is 33 m (108 ft) tall, the tallest statue in Mauritius, and was inaugurated in 2007 as a faithful copy of the Shiva statue at Sursagar Lake in Vadodara, Gujarat. The statue of Durga, Durga Mata Murti, stands to the same height of 33 m. The year it went up is not published.

Around the water stand temples to Hanuman, the goddess Ganga and Ganesh, 11 temples and shrines in all. Take your time on the shoreline, past the colourful shrines along the lake’s edge. Pilgrims pray with the lake water, and many bottle some of it.

How the pilgrimage began, and why the dates differ

The pilgrimage to Grand Bassin is usually traced to a dream in 1887 and a first group of pilgrims in 1898, but the Mauritian accounts give different dates.

In the usual account, Pandit Jhummun Giri of Triolet dreamed in 1887, or in the 1890s by some tellings, that he saw the waters of Ganga Talao, and the first group of pilgrims set out from Triolet in 1898, led by Pandit Giri Gossayne from Terre Rouge. A second account links the start of the pilgrimage to a consecration in 1866 and makes Jhummun Giri the first pilgrim to carry a kanwar from Triolet to Grand Bassin, in 1897.

The two versions agree on the later milestone. In 1972 water from the Ganges, brought from Gomukh in India, was mixed into the lake, and the lake was renamed Ganga Talao. No primary record settles the date of the first pilgrimage, so both dates stand.

Maha Shivaratri brings the biggest crowds of the year

Maha Shivaratri, the most important Hindu festival in Mauritius, brings several hundred thousand pilgrims to Grand Bassin each year, many of them walking from home in the days before the festival night.

Estimates run from about 350,000 devotees, the figure given for the festival on 15 February 2026, to close to half a million. Dressed in white, pilgrims set out from every corner of Mauritius and converge on the Savanne uplands, many carrying kanwars, small hand-made shrines dedicated to Shiva, while volunteers put up tents along the way to offer them water, food and rest.

Maha Shivaratri follows the Hindu lunar calendar and usually falls in February or March. The next one in Mauritius is listed for Saturday 6 March 2027. Check the official public-holiday list nearer the time before you plan around it.

The festival is the time to come if you want to see the celebrations in full swing. Go as a respectful observer and leave the space at the water’s edge to the pilgrims.

How to avoid the pilgrimage traffic

The simplest way to avoid the pilgrimage traffic is to keep Grand Bassin and the plateau roads out of your plans in the days before Maha Shivaratri, unless the festival is the reason you are going.

In 2026 the busiest areas were La Marie, Plaine Sophie, Pétrin and the approaches to Grand Bassin, where the authorities concentrated their security and traffic arrangements. Pétrin matters for anyone coming from Chamarel, because the road from Chamarel passes through the Pétrin area before the B88 takes it on to the lake.

Hold-ups can also happen well away from the lake. On the evening of Thursday 12 February 2026, after police stopped kanwars that broke the size rules, groups of pilgrims blocked both lanes of the road between Highlands and Curepipe and traffic came to a temporary standstill.

• Visit Grand Bassin on an ordinary day outside the festival period, when the lake is a place of peace and quiet.
• If you have to drive the plateau in the days before the festival, go slowly and give walking pilgrims plenty of room, especially after dark.
• No bus route is published between Chamarel and Grand Bassin, so the trip needs a car or a taxi at any time of year.

How to dress and behave at Grand Bassin

Grand Bassin is a place of worship first. Take your shoes off before entering a temple and cover your shoulders and knees.

Shoes always come off before the inner areas of any temple. Covered shoulders and knees are a mark of respect rather than an enforced rule, and nobody checks, but dress that way anyway. All the temples are open to everyone at no charge, and you do not need to be Hindu to go in.

Pilgrims come to Ganga Talao to worship, light incense, pray and make offerings, so keep your voice down near the shrines, give people room at the water and leave offerings where they are.

Monkeys live around Grand Bassin and play along the shore. They are wild long-tailed macaques, the same animals that raid bags at the Black River Gorges viewpoint on the drive from Chamarel, so keep food out of sight, keep bags closed and do not feed them.

The drive from Chamarel over the plateau

Grand Bassin is 16.8 km from Chamarel by road, about 16 minutes without stops, east along the B103 Plaine Champagne Road and then the B88 Grand Bassin Road. Some figures put the distance nearer 20 km. Cloud builds over the plateau as the day warms, so allow longer than 16 minutes and go early.