Ryōan-ji holds the most famous karesansui — dry landscape garden — in Japan and arguably in the world. A rectangular bed of carefully raked white gravel, about the size of a tennis court, holds fifteen mossy rocks in five groups. There are no plants and no water. The garden's date and authorship are uncertain (most likely late fifteenth century), and its meaning has been debated for as long as it has existed.
The temple itself is a working Rinzai Zen monastery and there are other gardens, a moss-edged pond, and a small teahouse on the grounds, but the rock garden is the reason to come. Arrive at opening time or in the last hour of the day to have any chance of sitting on the veranda in something like silence. Whatever you make of the garden, the quiet act of looking at it for ten minutes is the point.