"Magical Borobudur" a Borobudur Travel Page by MikeAtSea

The temple of Borobudur is located in central Java.
Built between 778 and 856, more than two million cubic feet of stone were used, making Borobudur the world’s largest Buddhist monument. The construction exhausted five generations of Central Java’s people.Yet, within little more than a century after completion, Borobudur was mysteriously abandoned.
When neighbouring Mount Merapi erupted, volcanic ash covered the site, concealing the monumental complex for centuries. Rediscovery began in 1814 when Thomas Stamford Raffles visited Semarang and heard rumours of “a mountain of Buddhist sculptures in stone”.
In the following hundred years, the painstaking excavation and restoration of Borobudur was accomplished at a cost of $25 million.
Today this awesome monument stands as a symbol to an ancient and glorious heritage.

For me the trip to Indonesia will always stay in my memory. The date the pictures here were on Christmas Day 2004. The following day this entire region was thrown into pandemonium with one of the largest earthquakes killing thousands. The following Tsunami overtook our ship en-route to Australia though being on high sea we did not feel anything. The shock came the following morning when we woke up to the news on CNN and the BBC as to what has just happened. Most of the towns and regions effected were on our travel route in the preceding months.