Gunung Padang Megalithic Site

Indonesia's largest megalithic site, located on an extinct volcano in West Java with five terraces, stone retaining walls, and roughly 370 steps built from andesite columnar joints. First recorded by Dutch colonizers in 1914, rediscovered by farmers in 1979, and declared a National Site in 2014. Archaeologist Lutfi Yondri's 30-year excavation program dated charcoal samples to around 50-117 BCE, suggesting construction roughly 2,000 years ago. Claims of 20,000+ year dating by geologist Natawidjaja were retracted in 2024 after samples were found to be natural soil, not anthropogenic.