Lempuyang Temple

Pura Lempuyang Luhur is one of the sad kahyangan, the six pillar temples of Bali, and it is not one building but seven, strung up the ridge of Mount Lempuyang with the highest at around eleven hundred metres, reached by a stairway of well over a thousand steps that pilgrims climb in sequence. The first and lowest temple, Penataran Agung, has a candi bentar - a split gate - that frames Mount Agung directly beyond it, and this has become one of the most photographed spots in Indonesia under the name Gates of Heaven. What visitors discover on arriving is that the mirror-like water in the famous photographs does not exist: the effect is produced by an attendant holding a piece of glass under the phone lens, and the queue for it can run for hours.

What you actually see

• A gate framing Agung - the split gate at the lowest temple with the volcano beyond.
• A glass held under the lens - the source of the reflection in every photograph.
• Seven temples up a ridge - the pilgrimage climb of over a thousand steps.
• A long queue - hours, at the gate, for the photograph.

When to go

April to October; arrive at dawn or skip the gate queue entirely. A day.

Honest expectations

The reflection is fake and the queue is genuinely hours long at peak. Agung is often in cloud, which defeats the whole exercise. Most visitors never climb past the first temple, which is the actual pilgrimage.

Nearby

Tirta Gangga is close; Amed and the east coast are north.