Borobudur Temple at sunrise - Java, Indonesia

Borobudur Temple, located 42 km northwest of the Javanese province, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, is the largest Buddhist temple in the world. It is built in the shape of a pyramid with a square base of 118 m length.
Borobudur was considered a "kumagara" (a covered structure) and agreed to be dwelling on Sakyamuni Buddha when he was in his mother's womb. The temple's founders wanted Buddha's teachings to be represented visually. At the same time, it wanted to suggest this power of Sakyamuni through the building structure. Borobudur temple founders' intention was expressing the cosmic and all-powerful essence of Buddha.
The Borobudur name comes from the Sanskrit words "Vihara Buddha Uhr" and that means Buddhist monastery on the hill (height).
The temple is built in six square terraces, placed on the bottom and on top of these there are three circular terraces that lead to the top. Seen from above, it appears as a giant mandala of Borobudur. Paintings on the temple are long extinct, but it is said that stone was painted in white or yellow gold to seize the sun.
From the main entrance, in the east, the pilgrims were surrounding the temple clockwise, on the corridors of the terraces, to the top, where the main monument stupa was. The walls in the corridors have beautiful relief work, totalling 1,460 panels with narrative sculptures, covering 1900 square meters and 1212 panels carved with Buddhist doctrines and aspects of life from 1,000 years ago in Java, covering 600 m side. The carved corridors have an approximate length of 2,500 meters, totalling about one million carved plaques. Some Buddhists say that this monument is a "gigantic book" illustrating Buddha Sakyamuni's life and his principles.Less