Shimogamo Shrine (officially Kamomioya-jinja) stands where the Takano and Kamo rivers meet, set within the Tadasu no Mori — a small grove of giant zelkova and oak trees that is one of the few surviving fragments of the lowland forest that once covered the entire Kyoto basin. Together with its sister shrine Kamigamo to the north, the site predates the city itself: archaeological finds suggest religious activity here from the seventh century BCE.
The vermilion shrine buildings, periodically rebuilt to the same plan, are an excellent example of the nagare-zukuri shrine style and were inscribed by UNESCO in 1994 along with sixteen other Kyoto sites. The forest in front of them is at its best on a hot summer day; in May the Aoi Matsuri — one of the city's three great annual festivals — culminates with a long Heian-court procession in costumes from the eighth century coming down through the trees to the shrine.