Mount Hiei rises 848 metres on the north-east edge of the Kyoto basin and was for centuries the dominant religious force in the city. Enryaku-ji, the temple complex at its summit, was founded by the monk Saichō in 788 and became the headquarters of the Tendai school of Japanese Buddhism — and the training ground of virtually every founder of every other major Japanese Buddhist school over the next four centuries, including Hōnen, Shinran, Eisai, Dōgen, and Nichiren.
The complex is now divided into three main zones (Tōdō, Saitō, and Yokawa) scattered across the wooded mountain, with a shuttle bus between them. The atmospheric Konpon Chū-dō hall, with its unbroken thousand-year flame, is the spiritual heart of the temple. Access from the Kyoto side is by funicular and cable car from Yase, with views back across the city; the descent on foot through the cedar forests on the Sakamoto side is one of the best half-day hikes in the region.