Prambanan Temple

Candi Prambanan is the grandest temple in Java apart from Borobudur. Located on the Prambanan plain, this sprawling temple complex sits majestically in an open area about twenty kilometers south of Mount Merapi, which dominates the horizon. The temple was constructed in the early ninth century by the Sanjaya dynasty, a flourishing Hindu kingdom that shared the island with the Buddhist Saliendra dynasty that built Borobudur. The relationship between the two dynasties is not clear, but one theory maintains that the Sanjayas constructed Candi Prambanan as a symbol of dynastic power in response to the construction of Borobudur. However, the Sanjayas do not seem to have been particularly antagonistic toward , the temple complex is located just a few hundred meters south of Candi Sewu, a once awe-inspiring marvel of Buddhist art.

Whatever their motives, the Sanjayas certainly constructed Candi Prambanan on a grand scale comparable to Borobudur. In its original form, the temple complex contained over 250 large and small temples. From afar, the temple probably resembled a small city, with a towering core of central spires surrounded by hundreds of subsidiary structures. At the center of this "city" is a square-shaped terrace surrounded by a heavy wall. Gates in the wall are oriented to the four cardinal directions, leading into a middle courtyard surrounded by a much wider wall. Within this zone were once 224 nearly identical temples, each measuring 6 x 6 x 14 meters. Beyond the middle wall was an even larger outer wall that was skewed at an angle to the inner walls. No traces of this wall remain, though parts of it existed as late as the 19th century.

Sumber : http://www.orientalarchitecture.com/indonesia/yogyakarta/prambanan.php