Places to visit in Central Java, Indonesia
14 places to visit in Central Java, Indonesia, each with LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own: Borobudur, Mendut Temple, Sangiran and more. Stand at any of them with the app open and the stamp is yours, confirmed on site, in your Central Java volume.
3 UNESCO World Heritage sites · 11 Hidden gems
UNESCO World Heritage sites in Central Java (3)
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Borobudur
The largest Buddhist temple in the world, a 9th-century Mahayana monument near Magelang built as a stepped mountain of stone. Pilgrims walk clockwise up through galleries of carved relief panels to a summit ringed by stupas, each holding a seated Buddha.
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Mendut Temple
A 9th-century Buddhist temple about 3 kilometres east of Borobudur, standing in a straight line with Pawon and Borobudur itself. Inside sit three large stone figures: a seated Buddha flanked by two bodhisattvas.
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Sangiran
An excavation site north of Solo that ranks among the most important in the world for the study of early humans. Fossils of Homo erectus have been found here in large numbers, and a museum on the site displays them.
Hidden gems in Central Java (11)
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Candi Cetho
A 15th-century Javanese Hindu temple climbing the western slope of Mount Lawu in a series of terraces, close to the border of Central and East Java. It sits high above the tea gardens and is often wrapped in cloud, and it is still used for Hindu worship.
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Candi Sukuh
A 15th-century Hindu temple on the western slope of Mount Lawu, built as a plain stepped pyramid unlike any other candi in Java. Its reliefs and statues, including three tortoises with flattened shells, deal frankly with birth, life before it and sexual education.
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Demak Great Mosque
One of the oldest mosques in Indonesia, believed to have been built in the 15th century by the Wali Songo, the nine saints who spread Islam in Java, under the first Sultan of Demak. Its layered Javanese roof stands on wooden pillars, one said to be made by Sunan Kalijaga from wood chips.
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Dieng Plateau
A high plateau on the floor of a volcanic caldera in Central Java, cool, misty and farmed with vegetables. It holds some of the oldest Hindu temples on Java, along with steaming craters and coloured lakes.
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Great Mosque of Central Java
The provincial grand mosque of Central Java, on the edge of Semarang, mixing Javanese, Arab and Roman touches. Its courtyard has giant hydraulic umbrellas that open like those of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, and a tall minaret gives a view over the city.
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Karimunjawa Islands
An archipelago of 27 islands in the Java Sea, about 80 kilometres northwest of Jepara, protected as a marine national park. White sand, mangroves and coral reefs surround the main island of Karimun and its neighbour Kemujan.
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Lawang Sewu
The former head office of the Dutch East Indies Railway Company in Semarang, its name Javanese for a thousand doors, after its endless rows of doors and tall windows. The building is now a museum and heritage railway gallery run by Indonesia's national railway.
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Plaosan Temple
A Buddhist temple complex about a kilometre north-east of Prambanan, in Bugisan village, Klaten. Its twin main shrines are surrounded by rows of small stupas and lesser shrines, and the stone carving is unusually fine.
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Pura Mangkunegaran
The palace of the Mangkunegara princes in the heart of Surakarta, now partly open as a museum. Its great open pendopo, a Javanese pavilion on wooden pillars, leads to rooms holding the family's collection of royal heirlooms, masks and dance costumes.
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Sam Poo Kong
The oldest Chinese temple in Semarang, said to have been founded by the Ming admiral Zheng He where his fleet came ashore. Its red halls are shared today by worshippers of several faiths, Muslims and Buddhists among them, Chinese and Javanese alike.
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Sewu Temple
An 8th-century Buddhist complex 800 metres north of Prambanan, older than Borobudur and the second largest of its kind in Indonesia. Its name means 'a thousand temples', from local folklore, though the complex has 249.
Collecting in Central Java
What are the best places to visit in Central Java?
LOQAH lists 14 places in Central Java. The best known include Borobudur, Mendut Temple, Sangiran, Candi Cetho and Candi Sukuh. Each has a stamp of its own to collect when you are there.
How many LOQAH stamps are there in Central Java?
14, and more are added over time. Each place has LOQAH's carefully crafted stamp of its own.
How do I collect a stamp in Central Java?
Open LOQAH at the place and get its stamp. LOQAH checks where you are once, at that moment; at the place itself the stamp is confirmed on site, with a gold badge.
I have been to places in Central Java before. Can I add them?
Yes. In Earlier trips, choose Central Java and swipe through its stamps, or import your Google Timeline. Each one goes into your volume with the date, if you know it.
More in Indonesia
Collect your first stamp.
LOQAH is free on iPhone and Android, in India and 20 more countries, with more countries on the way. Stand at a place, collect its stamp, and keep every trip in a passport that grows.