Goa Gajah or Elephant Cave is near Ubud and added to the UNESCO World Heritage

       

Goa Gajah, also called Elephant Cave is located near Ubud in the middle of Bali

Goa Gajah dates from the 11th century and was discovered in 1922

The entrance to the cave is a kind of monstrous creature with mouth wide open

The cave has a 13 meter long corridor leads to a T-junction

At the end of the left corridor is a statue (1 m high) with four arms of Ganesha

(the Hindu god with the elephant)

Just before the entrance is a statue of the Buddhist goddess Hariti

The earliest known written notice of the existence of the Goa Gajah by LC Heyting,

then controller of the Dutch East Indies Government in Bali

This post was mentioned in the report of the Archaeological Service of 1923

In 1926 he wrote an illustrated report on his first visit to Goa Gajah in the journal

Dutch East Indies, New Years Eve, episode 11, march 1926

Opposite the cave is a fountain with six images of women

This was only uncovered in 1954 by the archaeologist JC Warrior

Along the cave is the river Petanu

Striking is the mix of Hindu and Buddhist elements

Around the year one thousand THE cave must have been used by Hindus;

probably before by Buddhists

This site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List on

October 19, 1995 in the Cultural category

You can also visit the Buddha temple

This requires a lot of walking up and down the stairs

The temple is situated in a beautiful tropical garden but not very special