Dramatically marooned on a craggy wave-lashed rock sitting just off the south-west coast, Pura Tanah Lot really does deserve its reputation as one of Bali's top sights. Fringed by frothing white surf and glistening black sand, its elegant multi-tiered shrines have become the unofficial symbol Bali, appearing on a vast range of tourist souvenirs, while its links with several other coastal temples afford it an especially holy status. Unsurprisingly, the temple attracts huge crowds every day, particularly around dusk when bus loads of local and foreign tourists come to see the magnificent temple profile silhouetted againts the sunset. Even bigger crowds amass here at the time of Pura Tanah Lot's odalan festival.

THE TEMPLE

Pura Tanah Lot is said to have been founded by the wandering Hindu priest Nirartha, who sailed across to Bali from his home in Java during the sixteenth century. Legends described how the holy man was preaching at Rambut Siwi, about 50km northwest up the coast, when he was distracted by a beaming light from the southeast. Setting off in search of the source, Nirartha arrived at Tanah Lot to find that the light was shining from a holy spring here. He began to preach to the local people of Beraban, but this angered the village priest who demanded that the rival holy man should leave. In response, Nirartha meditated so hard that he pushed the rock he was sitting on out into the sea; this became the Tanah Lot "island". He then dedicated his new retreat to the god of the sea and transformed his scarf into posionous snakes to protect the place. Ever since then, Pura Tanah Lot has been one of the most holy places on Bali, closely associated with several other important temples along the coast, including Pura Rambut Siwi and Pura Luhur Uluwatu.

Because of its sacred status, only bona fide devotees are now allowed to climb the temple stairway carved out of the rockface and enter the compunds; everyone else is confined to the patch of grey sand around the base of the rock which is under water at high tide. When the waters are low enough, you can take a sip of holy water(air suci) from the spring that rises beneath the temple rock (donation requested) or stroke the docile holy coral snakes that are kept in nests behind the cliff face. Otherwise, your best option is to climb up to the mainland cliff top in search of the best viewing spot.

If you follow the cliff-top path to the southwest (right) of the temple rock you can admire the great panorama that extends as far as the raised plateau of the Bukit on Bali's southernmost tip. When Pura Tanah Lot and the other south coast temples were built, the aim was to try and make each coastal temple visible from the next one in the "chain", thereby creating a tangible string of shrines honouring the god of the sea. The sixteenth-century builders did well here, as you can certainly make out the location, if not the actual profile, of the next in the chain, Pura Luhur Uluwatu, which stands above the Bukit cliffs.