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Indonesia

Borobudur

The Stone Mandala
Lost Cities & RuinsSacred Cities
Gateway town: Yogyakarta
Portrait

Borobudur was built around 800 as a single stupa-mountain of two million blocks, its galleries carrying two and a half kilometres of relief that a pilgrim reads clockwise while climbing to the summit. It was abandoned in the fourteenth century and cleared only in 1814; book the sunrise slot, walk all nine levels in order, and treat it as the meditation manual it was designed to be.

Nearby in the atlas
Yogyakarta — The Kraton Court
If you like this city
Abu Simbel, Egypt — The Moved TemplesAjanta, India — The Painted CavesAngkor, Cambodia — The Temple Sea
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