Nature beheld a beautiful vista before us

Friday, September 5, 2008

Tamansari (Water castle) - Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Where : Yogyakarta, Indonesia
Place : Tamansari (Water castle)
When : Mid Aug 2008

Entrance to TamanSari (Water castle)

Taman Sari which means beautiful garden also known as water castle. It was built in 1758 by Sultan Hamengkubuwono I. The castle once has a place for relaxation and entertainment as well as a unique defense system. It was badly damaged due to an eartquake in 1867.

When visiting Taman Sari, avoid wearing shorts or mini-skirts. Your pants or skirts should be long enough to cover your knees. This conveys the message that you understand the local customs. And the locals will also respect you more.

As I understand from my tour guide this place was once a most secret part of Kraton as it formed as pleasure park of pools and waterways planted with hundreds of flowering trees. The Sultan and his concubines would relax here and from the tower overlooking the female bathing pools, the Sultan would choose his companion for the evening.

This is the tree where the ladies that came to the castle beautify themselves. The fruit from this tree works like a nail polish.

Thats the tower which the Sultan would be sitting in and watch the girls bathing in the swimming pool. He would then select which girl to be his companion.

This is taken from the tower where the Sultan could watch the girls.

I loved this part of the castle. The swimming pool is so beautiful. And I believe this castle is even more beautiful before the earthquake.

This is the Sultan private pool which is located behind the viewing tower.

This is the Sultan meditation chamber, located in the viewing tower.

The water which flows within Taman Sari was not only to beautify the castle, but it also functioned as a secret weapon for avoiding dangers. Whenever the enemies attacked, Sultan and his family would flee away through the underground passage. When all Sultan’s family was already in a safe place, the Watergate would be opened and the water would overflow the passages, so that enemy would be sunk.

Entrance to the underground passage (above).

This is an image of the underground passage.

Stairways leading to different part of the underground passage.

Labels: indonesia, overseas

++ quoth nessie at 6:21 AM

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This blog is more of nature themed.

Here i will share my findings and observations by means of photos and narration to places that i rambles in Spore.

Beside that i will post on what i have been doing (but not so much into writing such stuff actually).

There's also post of my overseas trip, with photos and narration of course.

So, please feel free to tell me which other new places or interesting place which of nature related that I should go explore next.

Nature lover.

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