 This is a resort on the slope of mount Ungaran, about 900 meters above
sea level. Gedong Songo (nine buildings), a group of small 8th century
Hindu Javanese temples, can be reached either by car or on horseback
from the town. Built at about the same time as the temples of the Dieng
complex, Gedong Songo is one of the most beautifully sited temple
complexes in Central Java and the views alone are worth the trip. Gedung
Songo (‘Nine Buildings’) belong to the earliest antiquities of Java,
they follow up the temples on the Dieng Plateau directly, for what about
time. They were also built high in the mountains in an area full with
volcanic activity; and they were also from Hinduist origin. But where
the temples on Dieng Plateau are somewhat squeezed into a foggy valley,
Gedung Songo are spread over the higher parts of the mountains, which
guarantee a splendid view. On clear days, the horizon is one long row of
volcanoes, from mount Lawu in the east, towards mount Sumbing, mount
Sundoro and Dieng Plateau in the west.
The temples were built between 730 and 780, the first temple excepted,
which could have been built some 30 years later. Gunung Songo is not the
original name and also doesn’t point at the number of structures. The
number nine has a special meaning in the Javanese culture, in which
there is a strong attachment to numbers. The temples are located at
about the same distance from each other (100 meters, 200 meters) on a
naturally formed terrace of edge of a mountain.
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