Ruined Temples. 115 



fore it is too late, I will enumerate the most important, as 

 briefly described in Sir Stamford RafBes's "History of Java." 



Beambanam. — Near the centre of Java, between the na- 

 tive capitals of Djoko-kerta and Surakerta, is the village of 

 Brambanam, near which are abundance of ruins, the most im- 

 portant being the temples of Loro-jongranand Chandi Sewa. 

 At Loro-jongran there were twenty separate buildings, six 

 large and fourteen small temples. They are now a mass of 

 ruins, but the largest temples are supposed to have been 

 ninety feet high. They were all constructed of solid stone, 

 everywhere decorated with carvings and bas - reliefs, and 

 adorned with numbers of statues, many of which still remain 

 entire. At Chandi Sewa, or the " Thousand Temples," are 

 many fine colossal figures. Captain Baker, who surveyed 

 these ruins, said he had never in his life seen " such stupen- 

 dous and finished specimens of human labor, and of the sci- 

 ence and taste of ages long since forgot, crowded together in 

 so small a compass as in this spot." They cover a space of 

 nearly six hundred feet square, and consist of an outer row 

 of eighty-four small temples, a second row of seventy-six, a 

 third of sixty-four, a fourth of forty-four, and the fifth forming 

 an inner parallelogram of twenty-eight, in all two hundred 

 and ninety-six small temples, disposed in five regular paral- 

 lelograms. In the centre is a large cruciform temple sur- 

 rounded by lofty flights of steps richly ornamented with 

 sculpture, and containing many apartments. The tropical 

 vegetation has ruined most of the smaller temples, but some 

 remain tolerably perfect, from which the efiect of the whole 

 may be imagined. 



About half a mile ofi" is another temple, called Chandi Kali 

 Bening, seventy-two feet square and sixty feet high, in very 

 fine preservation, and covered with sculptures of Hindoo 

 mythology surpassing any that exist in India. Other ruins 

 of palaces, halls, and temples, with abundance of sculptured 

 deities, are found in the same neighborhood. 



BoROBODO. — About eighty miles westward, in the prov- 

 ince of Kedu, is the great temple of Borobodo. It is built 

 upon a small hill, and consists of a central dome and seven 

 ranges of terraced walls covei-ing the slope of the hill and 

 forming open galleries each below the other, and communi- 



