Borobudur · The Tower Buried Again in Volcanic Ash

Borobudur is the largest Buddhist structure in the world: nine terraces of a mandala, with more than five hundred Buddha figures arranged along the galleries.

Less than two hundred years after it was built it was buried under volcanic ash and jungle, and it was only dug out again in the nineteenth century. Some of the statues still have no heads — the heads are elsewhere, in collections.

The keepers say that if you walk the monument at sunrise, the number of levels you count often differs from the map. They do not consider this a mistake.

Historical Mysteries / Central Java · Indonesia / 9th century