Slideshow: hundreds of thousands gather for Indian river pilgrimage, Magh Mela

Hundreds of thousands of Hindus gather every year for Magh Mela on Sangam, the confluence of the rivers Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati, in Allahabad, a city the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.

Magh Mela is a 45-day festival running from January 5^th to February 17^th during the Hindu month Magh. Devotees travel to Sangam each year to celebrate and bathe in the water.

The festival is sometimes known as a “mini-Kumbh Mela”, another mass pilgrimage to bathe to holy waters that takes place every three years.

In 2013 over 30 million people attended the bathing day at Maha Kumbh Mela on February 10^th, the largest peaceful human gathering in history. An estimated 100 million people visited the festival altogether that year.