Located in Vishwanath Gali, near Dashashwamedh Ghat on the western bank of River Ganges in Varanasi, UP, Kashi Vishwanath Temple is one of the 12 Jyotirlingas, dedicated to Vishwanath, the Lord of the Universe or Lord Shiva. The temple has its mention in several ancient Hindu texts. While the Skanda Purana includes a section titled Kashi Khanda, the Brahmavaivarta Purana, a voluminous Sanskrit text and a major Purana, also contains a section named Kashi Rahasya, both of which are dedicated to the holy city of Varanasi.

The temple was destroyed and rebuilt several times, which possibly began more than a thousand years ago. However, it is believed that the present structure of the temple was built by the Maharani Ahilyabai Holkar of Indore in 1780, which later came to be known as the Golden Temple, as its two domes and the spires were covered with gold plating in 1835, when the Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Punjab Kesari, donated one tonne of gold for the purpose, at the behest of his wife, Maharani Datar Kaur.

Although the exact history of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple is not very clear, it is considered that the temple, initially known as the Adi Vishveshwara Temple, was destroyed by Muhammad Ghori of Ghurid dynasty of today’s central Afghanistan, after he invaded India and defeated Jayachandra or Jaichand of Kannauj in the Battle of Chandawar in 1194, and razed the city of Kashi. Later, during the reign of Delhi's Sultan Iltutmish, the temple was rebuilt by a Gujarati trader in 1230, a bit away from the original site, which was again demolished during the rule of either Hussain Shah Sharqi or Sikander Lodhi.

After that, during the reign of Akbar, the 3rd Mughal Emperor, Raja Man Singh started to construct the temple again, which was boycotted by the Orthodox Hindu community, due to his marital relationship with the Muslim emperor. It is interesting to note that while Akbar married his sister, his son Jehangir was married to a daughter of Man Singh. Later, although Vir Singh Deo, a Bundela Rajput chief, as well as the ruler of Orchha, completed the construction of the temple, Aurangzeb, the 6th Mughal emperor, demolished it in 1669, and used its debris for the construction of the Gyanvapi Mosque near the spot.

Between 1833 and 1840, several smaller temples and ghats, or the steps by the riverside, were constructed in the area, along with additional constructions to the temple, made by numbers of Indian royal families and kingdoms, which include the construction of a low roofed colonnade, supported by around 40 pillars, in the precinct of the Gyan Vapi well, made by Baiza Bai, widow of the Maratha ruler Daulat Rao Scindhia of Gwalior, in 1828.

It is obvious from the history of the temple that over the past centuries, the architecture of this popular tourist site in Varanasi has undergone numerous additions and renovations. The main temple, constructed in the form of a quadrangle, is surrounded by several small temples dedicated to deities like Kaalbhairava, Dandapani, Avimukteshwara, Vishnu, Vinayaka, Sanishwara, Virupaksha, Kartikeya, Parvati and others. Apart from that, there is a small well in the temple complex, known as the holy Gyan Vapi Well, located to the north of the main temple, where the Jyotirlinga was hidden for the protection of its sanctity from the invaders.

Legend says that during the Mughal invasion, the main priest of the temple jumped in the well with the Jyotirlinga to make it safe.

Kashi Vishwanath Temple is composed of three different parts. While the first contains a 50.85 feet (15.5 m) high spire on its top, the second has a golden dome and the third also has a golden spire, along with a flag and a trident. The Sabha Griha, or the congregation hall, leads to the inner Garbha Griha, the sanctum sanctorum, enshrining the 2 feet (0.6 m) tall and 3 feet (0.9 m) in circumference Jyotirlinga, made of black stone, placed on a silver altar. Recently, in February 2022, the temple's sanctum sanctorum was gold-plated, when an anonymous donor from South India donated 60 kg of gold.

The Kashi Vishwanath Temple, widely recognised as one of the most important places of worship in the Hindu religion, receives around 3,000 visitors every day, which even reach 1,000,000 or more, on certain occasions. Hindus from all over the world wish to visit the place at least once in their lifetime, as it is believed by many that a visit to the temple and a bath in the Ganges is a way to achieve the moksha, the ultimate liberation from the cycle of life and death. To make an appropriate infrastructure to negotiate the huge crowd, an 800-crore Rupee Kashi Vishwanath Corridor Project was launched in March 2019, to make an easy access between the temple and the River Ganges and to create more space to prevent crowding, as well as to give a boost to tourism in the holy city. The first phase of the project, a 20-foot-wide corridor connecting Lalita Ghat to Mandir Chowk on the temple premises, was inaugurated by the Prime Minister on 13 December 2021, with a sacred ceremony. According to a press release by the government, during the process, around 1,400 residents and businesses within the corridor's area were relocated elsewhere and compensated, and during the demolition of those buildings in the area, more than 40 ruined, centuries-old temples were found and rebuilt, which include the Gangeshwar Mahadev temple, the Manokameshwar Mahadev temple, the Jauvinayak temple, and the Shri Kumbha Mahadev temple. According to the report of the Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust on August 2023, around 100 million tourists had visited the temple since the inauguration of the corridor in December 2021.