An excessively popular day trip, Pura Tanah Lot is the most visited and photographed temple in Bali, especially at sunset when crowds and traffic overwhelm the site. However, it has all the authenticity of a stage set – even the tower of rock that the temple sits upon is an artful reconstruction (the entire structure was crumbling) and more than one-third of the rock is artificial.
For the Balinese, Pura Tanah Lot is one of the most important and venerated sea temples. Like Pura Luhur Ulu Watu, at the tip of the southern Bukit Peninsula, and Pura Rambut Siwi to the west, it is closely associated with the Majapahit priest Nirartha. It’s said that each of the sea temples was intended to be within sight of the next, so they formed a chain along Bali’s southwestern coast; from Pura Tanah Lot you can usually see the clifftop site of Pura Ulu Watu far to the south, and the long sweep of sea shore west to Perancak, near Negara. There are restaurants on the clifftop overlooking the temple.
Aim to coincide your visit with high tide, when the temple is marooned at sea; at low tide you can walk over to the temple itself, but non-Balinese people are not allowed to enter.
There are evening Kecak and fire dance performances (50,000Rp) from 6.30pm.
To reach the temple, walkways run from the vast parking lots through a mind-boggling sideshow of tacky souvenir shops down to the sea. Clamorous announcements screech from loudspeakers.
