Mirzapur is a city in southeastern Uttar Pradesh, India renowned for its famous carpet industry. A few miles away from this city is a site of pilgrimage to Hindus known as Vindhyachal where according to the mythology a part of Sati (an avatar of Durga) fell. The river Ganges flows through this city. Other sites of pilgrimage include Kali Khoh (literally 'the cave of the Goddess Kali') where a statue of the Kali has a mouth formed in the shape of a cave, hence the name. Very close to the city is a waterfall. The city itself has many Ghats (steps to a river). There are a few cinema-halls. At first look the city appears to be a confluence of town, village and city life. Bijli or electricity supply is very irregular and there are regular power cuts in the region. According to the tradition, the name of this town, after which the District itself is named was GIRZAPUR, which in terms derives its name from the goddess Parvati (Girija) who sacrified herself here in a yajna. Mirza, Vindhyavasini and Lakshmi are the other names of the goddess whose temple exists at Vindhyachal. The present name of the district is derived from goddess Lakshmi who emerged from the sea. The word Mirza is formed from two words; Mir meaning sea and ja meaning outcome,with the additional pur standing for town. It is also locally believed that the town was founded by Raja Nanner and was known as Girijapur, but later on it came to know as Mirzapur The earliest mention of the town is found in the writings of Tieffenthaler , who drew up his description of the country between 1760 and 1770. He mentioned it, under the name of Mirzapur specially as a great mart. In the records of Jonathan Duncan , who was resident of Varanasi, frequent mention is made of the place as Mirzapur. About 32 kms from Mirzapur is the famous fortress of Chunar .