8 Sacred Archaeological Sites in Indonesia

Have you ever wondered if there are any archaeological sites in Indonesia that you can explore? Some of the historical proof mentions that the country used to have a megalithic life even before humans. That makes sense that the country has some archaeological sites.

Moreover, most megalithic life in Indonesia was continued by some generations in the oldest kingdom era in Indonesia. That makes you can find some archaeological sites in Indonesia that you can explore up until now, such as Hinduism and Buddhism temples.

If you are wondering where to find some of the archaeological sites in Indonesia, here we have some of them on the list below. Let’s check them out!

1. Borobudur Temple

Borobudur temple is one of the most popular archaeological sites in Indonesia that is located in Magelang of Central Java which is as popular as the popular temple in Bali.

The temple is not too far from Yogyakarta as the nearest city in town. This kind of archaeological site is typical of Buddhist temples and even recognized as the biggest Buddhist temple in South East Asia.

Borobudur temple contains many reliefs on the walls of it and represents the three levels of Buddhist cosmology. There you can find the true story of the old Mataram kingdom during the Syailendra dynasty, as one of the most popular oldest kingdoms in Indonesia.

2. Prambanan Temple

Exploring Yogyakarta couldn’t be enough without visiting the Prambanan temple which is as popular as temples in Ubud. This kind of temple is one of the most popular archeological sites in Indonesia that is located between Yogyakarta and the Prambanan district of Central Java.

Prambanan temple is one of the biggest Hinduism temples in Indonesia, which was built around nine centuries during the Syailendra dynasty that linked with the Mataram Kingdom. This kind of temple looks similar to the Angkor in Cambodia based on the construction all over the temple.

3. Ratu Boko

Ratu Boko is one of the most popular archaeological sites in Indonesia that not too far from Prambanan temple. Once you explore there, you can easily be going ahead to Ratu Boko, which offers the most magnificent scenery around such as the beautiful forest in Indonesia and the religious nature of local people there.

Based on the Shivagrha inscription, Ratu Boko temple used to function as a defensive fort during the Mataram Kingdom era. It contains some sacred places, such as the main gate, pool, Paseban, Pringgitan, women’s quarter, and some meditation caves.

4. Sambisari Temple

Sambisari temple is one of the most popular archaeological sites in Indonesia that located in Yogyakarta. This kind of archaeological site represents the Hinduism temple that was built during the era of Rakai Garung’s leadership of the Mataram Kingdom, one the oldest kingdom in Indonesia.

Sambisari temple has almost as same as the Prambanan temple in most architectural constructions of the temple and the reliefs on the walls. Some Hinduism deities form a statue on the reliefs of the walls, such as Durga, Ganesha, and Agastya, the three most sacred deities in Hinduism.

5. Dieng Temple

Dieng temples are one of the most popular archaeological sites in Indonesia located in the Dieng plateau of Central Java, one of the most popular mount volcanoes in Indonesia. The temples were built around the seven to nine century, which has typical of Hinduism architectural temples.

Dieng temples contain six main temples that have a different name for every temple, such as Arjuna temple, Srikandi temple, Sembadra temple, Dwarawati temple, Bima temple, and Gatotkaca temple.

6. Gunung Padang

Gunung Padang is one of the most popular archaeological sites in Indonesia located in the Cianjur regency of West Java. Local people perceived this kind of archaeological site as the most sacred place there as they believe it was built overnight by the King of Siliwangi.

Based on the inscription of the Siliwangi kingdom era, the Gunung Panjang archaeological site was built between the 2nd to 5th centuries. The site is located under the Gunung Padang mount as one of the mountains to hike in Indonesia for beginners, which used to cover by volcanic ashes after the mountain of Gunung Padang exploded which makes the stone there becomes rectangular.

7. Sangiran

Sangiran is one of the most popular archaeological sites in Indonesia located in Sragen of Central Java. In around 1995, UNESCO recognized that place as the most important archaeological site to study human evolution. It was admitted by UNESCO as one of the lists of World Heritage Sites in around 1996.

Sangiran is a kind of archaeological site that contains some fossil man such as Homo Sapien, Homo Erectus, Meganthropus Paleojavanicus, Pithecanthropus Soloensis, and many more. Not only human fossils but there also animal fossils and some megalithic tools that were believed used to functions to help them hunt.

8. Muara Takus Temple

Muara Takus temple is one of the most popular archaeological sites in Indonesia located in the Riau province of North Sumatra. This kind of archaeological site becomes the largest archaeological temple in Sumatra that was built around the 11 to 12th centuries.

Muara Takus temple was built during the Sriwijaya Kingdom era that becomes the center of the Buddhism temple in Sumatra around that era. Based on the inscription, this kind of Buddhist temple was built during the Mahayana dynasty as the biggest dynasty in the Sriwijaya Kingdom era.

So, there are some of the most popular archaeological sites in Indonesia that represent the most sacred megalithic era. Most of them bring the most historical moment for Indonesian in common that couldn’t be separated easily.

Have you ever visited one of those archaeological sites? Tell us which one is your favorite the most.