Stairs, gateway, and shrine at Bali's Besakih Temple

Stairs lead to a brick and carved stone gateway at Bali's Besakih Temple. Through the gateway, a small thatched shrine to the gods is visible.Pura Besakih, including about 35 ritual structures, is considered Bali's "Mother Temple." While not the most architecturally spectacular of Balinese temples, Besakih's location partway up Mount Agung makes for breath-taking scenery as visitors mount steep hills and stairways towards the uppermost shrines. Besakih temple is the site of a yearly anniversary ritual, and an island-wide purification and blessing ritual, last held in 1979, which is scheduled only once every hundred years.