Breathtaking landscape

Borobudur was constructed, at the geographical centre of the island of Java, in the the Kedu Plain, which is also known as the 'Garden of Java' because of its great fertility. It is a bowl-like plain flanked by mountain ranges on practically all sides, marked by two sets of twin high mountains with an average height of 3,000 metres. The two mountains to the northwest are the dormant volcanoes of Sindoro and Sumbing, and to the northeast are the dormant Merbabu and the majestic very active volcano, Gunung Merapi.

The undulating plain is crossed by the two main rivers of the area, the Progo and the Elo, which run nearly parallel to each other from north to south until they meet at a point not far from Borobudur.

The landscape surrounding this highly accessible area is completely flat, but a few kilometres to the west lies the Menoreh range with a row of three small hills running from northwest to southeast, diminishing in size. It was the approximately 15-metre-high central hill that was chosen to construct Borobudur.