The largest Buddhist temple in the world, Borobudur is a vast complex of Buddha statues and stupas covering a hillside, close to the city of Yogyakarta, which in itself holds a plethora of interest. Borobudur was lost to the jungle until 1814 but has now been restored, and has to be one of Asia's leading monuments. It's customary to climb the nine levels one at a time, although this would cover quite a distance, so many visitors choose to take a more direct route to the summit.

The Temple is decorated with 2672 relief panels and 504 statues of Buddha, with the main dome at the centre of the top platform surrounded by 72 Buddha statues seated inside perforated stupas, bell-shaped structures allowing Buddha to see out and over the plains beyond.

Built in the 9th Century, Borobudur became the centre of South East Asia's Buddhist world for five centuries. In the 14th Century, the Temple was abandoned, although there's no clear theory as to why this may have happened. One likely cause is the rise of power in East Java making this region of central Java less important, and as the temple was partly covered by volcanic ash when it was rediscovered by Stanford Raffles (the founder of Singapore) in the 1800's, volcanic activity in the area may also have been a cause. The Temple was gradually unearthed, and a more recent restoration programme in the 1970's has brought Borobudur back to something close to how it would have looked during its heyday.

The Temple has six square lower platforms that cover the hillside, topped by three circular levels to create one giant Stupa. The lowest level is almost 400 feet across, and the whole construction contains about 72,000 cubic yards of stone. There's no inner chambers to the Temple, which makes it all the more unique.

This area of Central Java is also home to one of the most important Hindu temples in the region, at Prambanan, east of Yogyakarta. There are 224 temples here, only a handful of which have been restored. A little younger than Borobudur, Prambanan is almost as impressive. Further east again, beautiful Mount Bromo is an active volcano that's picture-postcard perfect - just what a volcano should be, with a perfectly symmetrical cone gently puffing away. Visitors can walk along the wasteland of the outer caldera to climb the rim of the inner crater, arriving in time of one of the most spectacular sunrises imaginable.