Have you watched the Ancient Apocalypse series on Netflix? If you did, you probably got to know that in the series’ first episode, it showed that Indonesia’s Java Island hides an intriguing ancient secret in one of its mountains — and I have been there!
On the reason of following my curiosity and figuring out for myself the truth about the much talked about monolithic monument dubbed as “Southeast Asia’s Macchu Picchu and the world’s oldest pyramid,” I took a flight from Singapore to Indonesia’s capital city Jakarta the weekend following the end of my third backpacking trip, and drew a route to Mount Padang (locally known as Gunung Padang) in Cianjur regency.
Mount Padang features the Gunung Padang Monolithic Site which is believed to be the home of some advanced human civilisation estimated to have occurred sometime 4,000 – 20,000 years ago. Today, it is considered as Southeast Asia’s biggest megalithic site.
In one academic research paper, Gunung Padang Megalithic Site is described as a place located at 885 metres (2,904 ft) above sea level. The site covers a hill, an extinct volcano, in a series of five terraces bordered by retaining walls of stone that are accessed by 370 successive andesite steps rising about 95 metres (312 ft). It is covered with massive hexagonal stone columns of volcanic origin.
Trip to Gunung Padang Monolithic Site from Jakarta, Indonesia
Gunung Padang Monolithic Site is reachable from Jakarta, Indonesia, for about 3 to 4 hours, depending on the road traffic and your connections.
In my case, I took a bus from Jakarta to the city of Bogor where I spent my first night. The vehicle-clogged streets of this city was incredible but also was nothing new to me.
The next day, I took a public utility van and drove with the locals to the town of Cianjur. Upon arrival, I hired a local motorcycle driver who brought me up to the monolithic site.
We drove up to the mountains and traversed many scenic views of tea plantations before arriving in Gunung Padang.
Seeing the megalithic site in person gave me some chills and mystic feeling as I delved into the mysteries of an ancient civilization. It was so eerily peaceful there, and knowing that the ancients have walked on its soil, it felt amazing.
There are still debates going on between academics whether Gunung Padang Megalithic Site is a natural rock formation or man-made.
If confirmed, Gunung Padang is the ground zero of what could be the oldest pyramid structure on our planet, carbon dated to be 10,000 – 20,000 years old, with most of it still buried underground. It could rewrite our history that advanced civilisation had already existed even in those primeval years of human civilisation.
Here are the photographs I have taken myself from many angles of the ancient site:
Do you think Indonesia’s Gunung Padang Megalithic Site is man-made too?
Share your thoughts below!
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