THE KTJENS OF EOEO BUDTJK Ltf JAVA. 205 



underwood and carrying away the earth under which the ruins 

 were buried. When this preliminary operation was completed, a 

 spectacle appeared which must have seemed to the Lieutenant o£ 

 Engineers a reward worth all his labour. 



This is Sir Stamfokd Baffles' description of what came to 

 light. (" History of Java," Yol. II, 31, Ed. 1830.) 



" In the district of Boro in the province of Kedu and near to 

 the confluence of the rivers Elo and Praga, crowning a small hill 

 stands the temple of Boro Bodo, supposed by some to have been 

 built in the sixth, and by others in the tenth century of the Javan 

 era. It is a square stone building, consisting of seven ranges of 

 walls, each range decreasing as you ascend, till the building termi- 

 nates in a kind of dome. It occupies the whole of the upper part 

 of a conical hill, which appears to have been cut away so as to 

 receive the walls, and to accommodate itself to the figure of the 

 whole structure. At the centre, resting on the very apex of the 

 hill, is the dome before mentioned, of about fifty feet diameter, 

 and in its present ruinous state, the upper part having fallen in, 

 only about twenty feet high. This is surrounded by a triple circle 

 of towers, in number seventy-two, each occupied by an image look- 

 ing outwards, and all connected by a stone casing of the hill 

 which externally has the appearance of a roof. Descending 

 from thence, you pass on each side of the building by steps 

 through five handsome gateways, conducting to five successive 

 terraces, which surround the hill on ever} r side. The walls 

 which support these terraces are covered with the richest sculp- 

 ture on both sides, but more particularly on the side which 

 forms an interior wall to the terrace below, and are raised so as to 

 form a parapet on the other side. In the exterior of these para- 

 pets, at equal distances, are niches, each containing a naked figure 

 sitting cross-legged, and considerably larger than life ; the total 

 number of which is not far short of four hundred. Above each 

 niche is a little spire, another above each of the sides of the niche, 

 and another upon the parapet between the sides of the neighbour- 

 ing niches. The design is regular ; the architectural and sculptural 

 ornaments are profuse. The bas-reliefs represent a variety of 

 scenes, apparently mythological, and are executed with considerable 

 taste and skill. The whole area occupied by this noble building is 



