Updated August 2026
Besakih, the mother temple
More than twenty temples stacked up the side of an active volcano, and for two decades the most frustrating place to visit on Bali. The second part has largely been fixed.
Besakih is not one temple. It is a complex of more than twenty, built in terraces up the south-western flank of Mount Agung at around a thousand metres, with the central sanctuary of Pura Penataran Agung at its heart. In Balinese Hinduism it outranks everything else on the island, which is why it is universally called the mother temple. Every regency, every clan and every caste on Bali has some claim on a shrine somewhere on this hillside.
It is also the site that generated more angry reviews than any other in Bali, for reasons that had nothing to do with the temple itself. Most of what you will read online about Besakih was written during that period, and a good deal of it is no longer accurate. The site has been reorganised around a visitor centre and a shuttle, and the experience people describe from a decade ago is not the one you will have.
What has not changed is the distance. Besakih eats a day from anywhere most visitors stay, and it rewards you with scale rather than intimacy. This page is about deciding whether that trade is yours to make, and then making the day work if it is.
The drive is the hard part
Free cancellationBesakih and east Bali day trips
- ✓Hotel pickup, which removes the two and a half hour drive from your morning
- ✓A driver who waits, so a ceremony closure does not wreck the schedule
- ✓Usually paired with Lempuyang, Tirta Gangga or Sidemen on the same loop
- ✓Free cancellation on most listings, useful because the mountain makes its own weather
Affiliate link. Booking through GetYourGuide costs you nothing extra and supports the guide. Prices are indicative and vary by option and season.
The verdict in 30 seconds
- Go for the scale and the setting. Terraces, stairways, black thatched towers, and the plain dropping away below you.
- You will not go deep inside. The inner sanctums are for worshippers. That is normal, expected, and the single most common source of disappointment.
- The guide hassle is largely resolved since the visitor centre and shuttle. Pay at the official counter, and only there.
- It is a real climb in the open at altitude. Water, sun cover, shoes that grip on wet stone.
- Pair it with the east or do not come. Lempuyang, Tirta Gangga or Sidemen turn a long drive into a proper day.
What Besakih actually is
Nothing else on Bali is built like this, and the layout is the whole point.
Balinese temples are usually walled compounds on flat ground: a gate, a courtyard, a row of shrines. Besakih breaks that pattern completely. It is a vertical settlement of temples, each with its own walls and its own gate, stepping up a mountainside on a series of terraces that were almost certainly cut for worship long before anything Hindu stood on them. Archaeologists and historians read the terracing as evidence of a much older mountain cult, later absorbed rather than replaced.
That is the first thing to understand about the place: it grew. Successive dynasties, priestly lineages and clans added their own structures over centuries, which is why the complex has no single architect's logic to it. The word most guides reach for is accumulation, and it is the right one. Walk it and you can feel the additions.
The organising idea is direction. The central temple sits on the axis, and the temples around it are placed to the north, south, east and west, each carrying the colour and the deity that Balinese Hinduism associates with that direction. Vishnu to the north in black, Brahma to the south in red, Shiva at the centre in white. Once you know that, the apparently random scatter of gates and towers resolves into a diagram of the cosmos laid out across a hillside.
The other organising idea is height. In Balinese thought the mountain is the direction of purity and the sea the direction of impurity, so everything in the complex is arranged with the volcano above it. Besakih is not a temple that happens to be on a mountain. It is a temple that is about the mountain, which is exactly why 1963 mattered as much as it did.
Meru towers rise in odd numbers of tiers, and the count is a statement of rank rather than decoration. The tallest carry eleven.
Counting the temples
You will see the number given as twenty-two, as more than twenty, and occasionally as eighty or more. They are all defensible, because different sources count different things: the major public temples, the clan temples scattered among them, or every walled shrine on the hillside. The useful figure for a visitor is that there are around twenty temples you could walk to, of which you will realistically see five or six properly.
The complex, temple by temple
The most common way to waste a visit to Besakih is to climb the main stairway, photograph the gate, and come back down without ever knowing that you walked past five separate temples on the way.
Pick a temple in the complex
Besakih is a group of separate temples, not one building. These are the ones you will walk past, and what each of them actually is.
Pura Penataran Agung
The great central temple
Where it sits
Dead centre, at the top of the main stairway
Who it is for
Shiva, seated on the padmasana tiga, the triple lotus throne
Directional colour
White, the colour of the centre
How far off the path
You cannot miss itWhat you can enter
Outer courtyards and the stairway. The inner courtyards are for worshippers.This is the temple everyone photographs and the one that gives the complex its hierarchy. The wide flight of steps, the split gate at the top, the towers stacked behind: that frame is Penataran Agung. You walk up to it and around it rather than through it, and the terraces above the gate are the best place on the site to understand how the whole thing is laid out.
Two things become obvious once you use the layout rather than just looking at it. The first is that the crowd occupies a very small part of the site. Almost everyone stays on the central axis, which means the trinity temples to the north and south are often close to empty five minutes after you leave the stairway. The second is that the further you go, the more the complex looks like what it is: a mountain sanctuary, not an attraction.
If you have the legs and the hour, Pura Pangubengan above the main terraces is the one that changes people's minds about the place. The path is rough, the climb is genuine, and at the top you are looking down on the whole of Besakih with the coastal plain behind it.
Photo Bhasker Thodla, CC BY 3.0
The gates are cut from black volcanic stone quarried from the mountain that the temple exists to acknowledge, which is not a coincidence anyone here would consider accidental.
1963, and why this temple carries the weight it does
Every guide mentions the eruption in a sentence. The story is worth more than that, because it explains the atmosphere of the place.
The 1963 eruption column photographed above the temple. The meru roofs in the lower part of the frame are Besakih itself.
In 1963 the Balinese were preparing Eka Dasa Rudra, the greatest purification rite in the calendar, held at intervals of roughly a century and staged at Besakih because nowhere else has the standing to host it. Mount Agung began to stir while the preparations were under way. The ceremony went ahead in circumstances nobody would have chosen.
The eruption that followed was one of the most destructive in twentieth century Indonesia. It devastated the districts on the mountain's flanks, displaced enormous numbers of people and killed a great many of them. Ash fell across the island and the agricultural damage in the east lasted years.
Besakih was not destroyed. The flows came down the slope and passed the complex, close enough that the escape is impossible to describe as anything other than narrow, and the temples were left standing. For Balinese Hindus that outcome was not luck. It confirmed what the site already was, and the rite was completed at the next opportunity in the following cycle.
Knowing this changes the visit. Standing on the terraces with the volcano above you and the burnt-black stone underfoot, the relationship between the temple and the mountain stops being an abstraction. Agung erupted again in the late 2010s and closed Bali's airspace more than once; the mountain is not a historical detail.
The reputation, and what changed
For a long stretch, arriving at Besakih meant being met in the car park by men presenting themselves as official guides, being told that a guide was compulsory, being walked around for twenty minutes and then being asked for a sum with no relation to anything. Alongside it ran a second routine involving donation books and invented fees. It was persistent enough that guidebooks openly advised skipping the holiest site on the island, which is a remarkable sentence to have to write about a place of worship.
The site has since been substantially reorganised around a large visitor centre at the base of the hill. Private vehicles park there rather than at the temple, a shuttle runs the last stretch up, and ticketing happens formally at a counter instead of being negotiated at a gate. Taking the transaction away from the temple entrance removed most of the opportunity for the old approach, and the improvement in reports since is not subtle.
Some approaches still happen, as they do at any major site anywhere. The defence is unchanged and it is easy: nobody is required to hire a guide to enter, you pay at the official counter, and a polite refusal repeated once is the end of it. Nothing you are told on the path overrides what the counter tells you.
It is worth separating two things that used to be tangled together. The old ambush was a problem. A real guide at Besakih is not, and is genuinely worth having if you want the complex explained. The difference is whether the decision is yours, made calmly, or a condition someone imposes on you in a car park.
Besakih is a working temple every day of the year, not only on festival days. Offerings arrive constantly.
Guide, booked trip, or on your own
There are three reasonable answers and the right one depends on what you want from the morning, not on what anyone tells you at the gate.
Three questions, one answer
The guide question is the one that has followed Besakih around for twenty years. Answer these and the page will tell you which of the three sensible options is yours.
Do you want the complex explained while you walk it?
Do you plan to go beyond the main stairway?
Are you comfortable turning down an approach without discomfort?
Answer all three and the verdict appears here.
The one line to remember
Money changes hands at the official ticket counter and, if you choose to hire one, with a guide engaged there at an agreed price. Not on the path, not into a donation book, not at the top of the stairway. If a figure appears after the fact, it was never agreed and you are entitled to say so.
What the visit is actually like
The pleasure of Besakih is the ascent and the geometry, not a close inspection of shrines. Expect that and the place delivers completely.
Photo Philip Nalangan, CC BY 4.0
The stairway
A broad flight of steps climbs from the entrance through a split gate towards the central temple, flanked by carved guardians. It is the image everyone takes, and it is considerably more impressive standing at the bottom of it than in any photograph of it.
The terraces
You walk between courtyards on successive levels, with black thatched meru towers stepping up the slope in odd-numbered tiers. It reads as a town of temples rather than a single building, which is exactly what it is.
The view back
Turning round is half the reason to climb. The land falls away towards the south coast and on a clear morning you can see a very long way. Agung itself is behind and above you, more often in cloud than not.
What you can and cannot enter
This is the single biggest cause of disappointed reviews, and it is entirely avoidable by knowing it in advance. Besakih is a functioning sanctuary rather than a monument, and the rules that apply to worshippers apply to you as well, which cuts both ways.
| Part of the complex | Visitor access | What that means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| Main stairway and split gate | Open | The classic frame. Climb it, stand on it, photograph from it. |
| Terraces and paths between temples | Open | Where you will spend most of your time, and where the site finally makes sense. |
| Outer courtyards of the temples | Usually open | Varies by temple and by day. If a ceremony is running, assume not. |
| Inner courtyards of Pura Penataran Agung | Worshippers only | You see the padmasana and the shrines from outside the wall. This is not a queue you can join. |
| Anywhere during a major ceremony | Closes at short notice | Frustrating after a long drive, and also the most interesting day to be there if you accept looking from further back. |
If walking through a temple interior is what you are after, Besakih is the wrong choice and Tirta Empul near Ubud is the right one, because there you can enter the water and take part in the ritual rather than watching it from behind a wall.
Ceremonies, and the day you might get lucky
Besakih runs a dense ceremonial calendar, because it hosts rites for the whole island as well as its own. The largest annual event is Bhatara Turun Kabeh, when the deities are understood to descend to the temple together and worshippers arrive from every part of Bali. It falls around the full moon of the tenth Balinese month, which lands in the March and April window on a Gregorian calendar and moves from year to year.
On a day like that the complex is transformed. The approach fills with penjor, the tall curved bamboo poles that mark a festival, and with families in white and gold carrying offerings up the hill on their heads. You will not get near the central shrines, and it does not matter in the slightest, because the thing worth seeing has moved outdoors and is happening all around you.
Above that sits Eka Dasa Rudra, the great purification held roughly once a century, which is the rite the 1963 eruption interrupted. You will almost certainly not be in Bali for one, and it is worth knowing about because it is the reason this particular hillside outranks every other temple on the island.
Practically speaking: a ceremony day is a coin toss. Check with your driver or your hotel before you set out, because they will know, and decide whether you would rather see the temple or see it in use. If you go on a festival day, dress properly, stay outside anything walled, do not stand higher than a priest, and keep the camera at waist level rather than in anyone's face.
Getting there, and how long the day really takes
Besakih sits in Karangasem, inland and high, and the drive is the part people underestimate. These are realistic figures rather than the ones a mapping app gives you on an empty road.
| Coming from | Drive, one way | Leave by | Shape of the day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubud | 1 h 30 | 07:00 | A comfortable half day. The easiest base for Besakih by some distance. |
| Sidemen | 45 min to 1 h | 08:00 | The closest sensible base, and a beautiful valley in its own right. |
| Candidasa | 1 h 15 | 07:30 | Pairs naturally with Tirta Gangga on the way back east. |
| Seminyak, Canggu, Kuta | 2 h 30 to 3 h | 06:00 | A full day, five to six hours of it in a car. Only worth it combined with something else. |
| Amed | 1 h 30 to 2 h | 07:00 | Works well as one leg of an east Bali loop with Lempuyang. |
Private driver
The standard solution and the right one for most people. A driver for the day is inexpensive by European or Australian standards, waits while you climb, and lets you chain Besakih with a second stop without renegotiating anything. Agree the itinerary in the morning, not at each stop.
Scooter
Reasonable from Ubud, Sidemen or Candidasa if you already ride confidently. Genuinely inadvisable from the south: three hours each way on unfamiliar roads, with an afternoon of rain at altitude a realistic possibility, is not a good trade for saving the price of a car.
Grab and Gojek
Fine for getting there, unreliable for getting back. Coverage in the hills above Karangasem is thin and you can be left waiting a long time in a car park at the end of the afternoon. If you use an app, agree with the driver that they wait.
When to go
Altitude decides this, not the tourist calendar. Besakih makes its own weather and it does so on a predictable daily rhythm.
Early morning
The best window without argument. Cooler for the climb, the mountain is more likely to be out, and the coach groups have not arrived. Arrive within an hour of opening and you get the terraces close to yourself.
Late morning
The busiest stretch, when the organised trips from the south land together. Still perfectly good, but the stairway is shared and the sun on the open terraces is hard work.
Afternoon
Cloud usually wins by early afternoon and rain is common, especially in the wet season. It is atmospheric rather than ruined, but wet stone steps in flip-flops are how ankles get turned.
Season
The dry months from around April to October give you the best odds of seeing Agung. The wet season gives you dramatic skies, fewer people and a genuine chance of arriving inside a cloud.
Nyepi, and the one day nothing runs
On Nyepi, the Balinese day of silence, the entire island shuts down: no flights, no traffic, no visits, nothing. The date moves each year and the days around it are heavy with ceremony. If your trip brushes that window, check before you build a driving day around a temple.
Tickets, dress code and what to bring
Where
Besakih village, Karangasem regency, on the south-western slope of Mount Agung at roughly a thousand metres.
Ticket
A few euros at the official counter, with sarong and shuttle in small additional amounts. Cash. Prices moved when the visitor centre opened and will move again.
Hours
Open through the day, from early morning to late afternoon. Ticketing closes before the site does, so do not arrive at the last hour expecting to climb.
How long
An hour and a half to two hours on site, plus the shuttle at both ends. Add an hour for Pangubengan.
What to wear
A sarong and sash are compulsory for everyone regardless of what else you are wearing, and both are available at the entrance. Shoulders covered. Beyond the rule, dress for the climb: closed shoes with grip, because the steps are worn stone and they are frequently wet, and a hat, because there is almost no shade on the terraces.
The same etiquette applies here as at every Balinese temple. Do not climb on shrines to get a photograph, do not point your feet at a shrine while sitting, step aside for a procession, and by convention women who are menstruating do not enter temple grounds. Nobody checks, and it is asked of visitors as much as of the Balinese.
What to bring
- •Water. More than you think. The climb is short but it is at altitude in the open.
- •Cash in small notes. Ticket, shuttle, sarong, parking and a drink afterwards. Cards are not the norm here.
- •A layer or a light rain shell. A thousand metres changes the temperature more than people expect, and the cloud arrives without ceremony.
- •Sun cover. Hat, sunscreen. The terraces are entirely exposed.
There are warung and stalls around the visitor centre for a plate of nasi campur or a coffee afterwards. Do not plan a serious lunch here; eat properly in Sidemen or back in Ubud.
Combine it with
Besakih on its own is a lot of driving for ninety minutes of temple. In the east it has natural partners, and picking one turns the day from a long errand into a proper itinerary.
Lempuyang
The Gates of Heaven, and the only pairing that justifies a pre-dawn start from the south. Do Lempuyang at opening while the queue is short and the mountain is clear, then come west to Besakih in the middle of the morning. The reverse order does not work.
Tirta Gangga
A royal water garden rather than a temple, and the perfect antidote to a hot climb: shade, ponds, stepping stones and somewhere to sit. About an hour east of Besakih and easy to slot in on the way back towards the coast.
Sidemen valley
Twenty minutes downhill, all rice terraces and river valley, and the quietest place to stay within reach of the temple. If Besakih is on your list and Ubud is starting to feel crowded, one night in Sidemen solves both problems at once.
Coming from the west, the road up passes through the country south of Kintamani, and it is entirely feasible to attach Besakih to a morning at Tukad Cepung if you leave early enough. What does not work is trying to bolt Besakih onto a day that already includes Tegallalang and a coffee plantation. Something in that chain gets rushed, and it is always the temple.
For how Besakih sits against the rest of the island's temples, and which ones are actually worth the drive from where you are staying, the Bali temples guide compares them side by side. Two very different alternatives, if the east is simply too far: Taman Ayun for a royal temple in a moat with no climbing at all, and Ulun Danu Beratan for the lake temple in the northern highlands.
So is it worth it
The honest answer depends entirely on what kind of traveller you are, and the reviews split cleanly along those lines.
Go, without hesitating
- ✓You are interested in how a religion organises itself in space, and you will happily spend two hours working out a layout.
- ✓You are staying in Ubud, Sidemen, Candidasa or Amed, so the drive is an hour or so rather than three.
- ✓You want scale. There is nothing else on Bali that operates at this size.
- ✓You are already going to Lempuyang and the two fit into one east Bali loop.
Think twice
- !You have four days on the island and you are based in Seminyak or Canggu. The maths does not work.
- !You are travelling with small children or anyone who struggles with stairs in heat.
- !You are chasing one specific photograph. The gate here is impressive in person and unremarkable in a phone camera.
- !You want to be inside a temple rather than around one. That is a different site.
The people who come back disappointed almost always arrived expecting a monument and found a working sanctuary that is not especially interested in them. The people who come back delighted arrived understanding that, climbed slowly, went sideways to the empty temples, and turned round at the top to look at the island falling away beneath them. Besakih rewards the second approach and punishes the first, and which one you take is entirely within your control.
Besakih: common questions
Is Besakih Temple worth visiting?
How long does it take to visit Besakih Temple?
What is the entrance fee for Besakih Temple in Bali?
What is the biggest Hindu temple in Bali?
What is the history of Besakih Temple?
Which god is Besakih Temple dedicated to?
Was Besakih damaged by the 1963 eruption?
Do you need a guide at Besakih Temple?
Has the guide hassle at Besakih been fixed?
What is the dress code at Besakih Temple?
How many steps are there at Besakih?
Can you go inside Besakih Temple?
More temples
Bali temples
Which ones are worth the drive, the dress code, and how to combine them.
Lempuyang
The Gates of Heaven, the queue, and the mirror trick behind the photograph.
Tirta Gangga
The royal water garden an hour east, and the palace it is constantly confused with.
Tirta Empul
The purification spring near Ubud, and how the ritual really works.