Candi Gedong Songo

A scattered group of small Hindu temples on the southern slopes of Gunung Ungaran, Gedong Songo is one of the oldest temple complexes on Java and one of the loveliest to visit. The temples sit at around 1,200 metres, linked by a 3-kilometre loop trail that climbs through pine forest past sulphur springs and viewpoints over Rawa Pening Lake and, on clear days, Merapi and Merbabu.

Sunrise is the trick: arrive before dawn, walk the loop with the mist still in the valleys, and finish with a hot bath in the bubbling sulphur pool. Horses can be hired at the entrance if you don't fancy the walk.

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Gedong Songo means 'nine buildings' in Javanese, although only five clearly defined temples and a handful of foundations remain. They were built in the 8th and 9th centuries by the Hindu Mataram kingdom, the same dynasty that, a generation later, built Borobudur — Gedong Songo's small-scale, dispersed style is what Javanese Hindu architecture looked like before it scaled up into the grand mandalas of the central plain.

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