Dieng Plateau, Ancient Temple and Lake on the Land above the Cloud

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Dieng Plateau is a magical place filled with many beautiful spots and curiosities. This volcanic plateau is an extremely fertile farming area while also rich in history. This is truly a wonderful place that you might not find anywhere else.

Dieng in the morning. via Instagram/halodieng

Apart from being a great farming area, this plateau also has a historic temple, volcanic crater, and twin lakes. Here is why you should visit Dieng Plateau, land above the cloud. After all, Dieng literally means ‘abode of the gods’.

Location

Dieng at dusk. via Instagram/amaratourntravel

Dieng Plateau, administratively, is located in two regencies in Central Java; Banjarnegara and Wonosobo. Access to this plateau is as easy as it gets. The road infrastructure is already in place for you to go to this place comfortably on a car or motorcycle. The plateau is approximately 50 kilometers to the southwest of Semarang, the capital of Central Java.

Temple Complex

The temples shrouded by mist. via Instagram/widodo.elbara

Dieng Plateau used to be littered with temples built by Kalingga Kingdom between the 7th or 8th century. Historians estimate that there were 400 temples built in this plateau. Sadly most of the temples are already gone and today only eight of them remain. Most of the temples here are named after the characters in Mahabharata epic like Arjuna, Bima, etc.

Sikidang Crater

A local is cooking eggs in the crater. via Instagram/sudrun

This is a sulfur swamp that acts as a crater in this giant caldera. This place is just a stone throw away from the parking lot. There is a boiling hot area in this crater that is often used by locals to boil eggs and sell them to tourists. The crater is actually not too wide but the place is impossible to miss because of the teeming vapor that comes out endlessly.

Warna & Pengilon Lake

The twin lakes. via Instagram/jonisvacations

There are two twin lakes on this plateau. Interestingly, even though they are located just next to each other, they have different water colors. Warna Lake has greenish water while the Pengilon Lake is brownish. These two lakes were formed when the ancient Dieng Volcano erupted. Legend says that the lakes here are the bathing place of angels.

Curiosities

Carica. via Instagram/aulia_widya

There are several unique things you can find on this plateau. For one, Dieng Plateau produces top quality potatoes. The soil here apparently is so good for potato farming they yield very well. This plateau also has a unique fruit that cannot be found anywhere else; the carica. In a glance, carica looks like a small papaya but they are actually very different.

Dieng Potato. via Instagram/erwin_bazonkan

This land is also unique because it can produce ginseng that is previously only found in Korea and its surrounding area. There are also many people with dreadlocks here. Locals believe that this is because of a curse originating hundreds of years ago.

The temple in the frosty morning. via Instagram/adi_jogjasolo

Dieng Plateau is a wonderful place, even the ancient people who lived there consider it the dwelling place of the gods. There are lots of interesting spots and facts you can discover here, including the boiling crater and twin lakes.

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Banjarnegara dieng plateau Wonosobo
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