Skip to main content

Gedong Songo

This is a resort on the slope of mount Ungaran, about 900 meters above sea level. Gedong Songo (nine buildings), a group of small 8th century Hindu Javanese temples, can be reached either by car or on horseback from the town. Built at about the same time as the temples of the Dieng complex, Gedong Songo is one of the most beautifully sited temple complexes in Central Java and the views alone are worth the trip. Gedung Songo ('Nine Buildings') belong to the earliest antiquities of Java, they follow up the temples on the Dieng Plateau directly, for what about time. They were also built high in the mountains in an area full with volcanic activity; and they were also from Hinduist origin. But where the temples on Dieng Plateau are somewhat squeezed into a foggy valley, Gedung Songo are spread over the higher parts of the mountains, which guarantee a splendid view. On clear days, the horizon is one long row of volcanoes, from mount Lawu in the east, towards mount Sumbing, mount Sundoro and Dieng Plateau in the west.

The temples were built between 730 and 780, the first temple excepted, which could have been built some 30 years later. Gunung Songo is not the original name and also doesn't point at the number of structures. The number nine has a special meaning in the Javanese culture, in which there is a strong attachment to numbers. The temples are located at about the same distance from each other (100 meters, 200 meters) on a naturally formed terrace of edge of a mountain

On Google Maps

View Larger Map

Related Post
Gedong Songo Gallery
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

St-Etienne-du-Mont - Gallery

Post a Comment
Read more

Glastonbury Abbey

Glastonbury Abbey Photo Gallery You can find here a romantic ruins, 36 acres peaceful parkland with pounds, orchard and wildlife areas. Also you can find unusual gift at Glastonbury Gift Shop that sit beside ticket office. History In 1955 Ralegh Radford's excavations uncovered Romano-British pottery at the west end of the nave. Saxon era A community of monks were already established at Glastonbury when King Ine of Wessex enriched their endowment. He is said to have directed that a stone church be built in 712, the foundations of which now form the west end of the nave. Glastonbury was ravaged by the Danes in the ninth century. The contemporary reformed soldier Saint Neot was sacristan at Glastonbury before he went to found his own establishment in Somerset. The abbey church was enlarged in the tenth century by the Abbot of Glastonbury, Saint Dunstan, the central figure in the tenth-century revival of English monastic life, who instituted the Benedictine Rule at Glastonbury. Dunstan...
Post a Comment
Read more

Kenroku-en Garden

Kenroku-en (兼六園, Six Attributes Garden), located in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, is an old private garden developed from the 1620s to 1840s by the Maeda clan, the daimyo who ruled the former Kaga Domain. Along with Kairaku-en and Koraku-en, Kenroku-en is one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan. It is open year-round during daylight hours and famous for its beauty in all seasons; an admission fee is charged. The garden is located outside the gates of Kanazawa Castle where it originally formed the outer garden, and covers 114,436.65 m² (over 25 acres). It began in 1676 when the 5th lord Maeda Tsunanori moved his administration to the castle and began to landscape a garden in this vicinity. This garden was, however, destroyed by fire in 1759. Its restoration was begun in 1774 by the 11th lord Harunaga, who created the Emerald Waterfall (Midori-taki) and Yugao-tei, a teahouse. Improvements continued in 1822 when the 12th lord Narinaga created the garden's winding streams with water drawn...
Post a Comment
Read more