Guide · The carved cave

Goa Gajah, the carved cave in the river valley

Goa Gajah is a cave cut into a rock face above a stream, with a carved mouth, a statue of Ganesha inside and old bathing pools below: what you see, what it costs and how long to stay.

Check availabilityfrom $34 · free cancellation

Editorial team, balitempletour.comUpdated October 24, 2026Reading time 6 min37 sources

On this topic: the tour Bali: Archeology Museum, Gunung Kawi & Goa Gajah Temple Tour 5.0 (81 reviews) 7 hours from$34 Check availabilityFree cancellation until 24 hrs ahead of the start

At a glance

01Where: Bedulu village, Gianyar, about 27 km from Denpasar.¹
02What: A T-shaped carved cave with a Ganesha statue inside.²
03How old: Named in a court poem of 1365; an inscription is thought 11th century.³ ⁴
04Entry: Rp 50,000 for foreign adults, Rp 25,000 for children.⁵
05Dress: Visitors in shorts are given a sarong at the gate.⁶

A cave between two streams

Goa Gajah sits in Bedulu village in the Blahbatuh district of Gianyar, about 27 km from Denpasar and a short drive from the centre of Ubud.¹ The Elephant Cave near Ubud is easy to miss from the road, because the site lies below street level in a green ravine. You reach it down a long flight of steps, and the climb back up is the only hard part of the visit.⁷

The setting is deliberate. The provincial tourism office explains that the temple was built where two streams meet, following the Balinese principle of Rwabineda, the balance of two opposing forces.⁸ Below the cave the water of the valley is still part of the place, and the paths lead down through the forest to it.

It is a small site, so do not expect a long day. Most visitors spend an hour or so walking from the courtyard to the cave, past the pools and down to the stream. The quiet comes from the trees and the sound of the water, and it is at its best in the cooler hours before the tour groups arrive.

Through the centuries

From hermitage to rediscovery

9th century

Carvings

The Ministry dates the caves and carvings to this century.⁹
11th century

Inscription

Kumon and Sahywangsa, dated by their letters.⁴
1365

Named in a poem

The Nagarakretagama by Mpu Prapanca mentions the site.³
1923

Rediscovered

Dutch archaeologists find the cave again.¹⁰
1954

Pools uncovered

The fountains and bathing pool come to light.¹⁰
1995 to 2015

Tentative List

On UNESCO's Tentative List, then withdrawn.¹¹

The carved mouth and what is inside

The face of the cave is carved with a jungle and its creatures, with a great open mouth as the doorway.¹² Inside, the cave is shaped like the letter T, and a statue of Ganesha, the elephant-headed god, stands in one arm.² In the other arm stand fragments of statues and a trilingga surrounded by eight small lingams.¹³

The name may come from that Ganesha, or from the river: the provincial office traces it to Lwa Gajah, a Buddhist hermitage, and explains that lwa means river, the Gajah river.¹⁴ ¹⁵ Either way, the elephant you find here is the god inside.

The cave is small and dim, and the air is often heavy with incense. Let your eyes adjust before you look for the niches of the old hermitage in the walls.¹⁶ Keep your voice down: people still come here to pray, and the space carries every sound. Offerings of flowers and rice are often laid in front of the statues; step around them, and do not touch the carvings to steady yourself, however tempting the cool stone is after the steps.

Entrance fees

Who pays what at the gate

Entrance fees as the Ministry of Tourism's temple guide lists them; parking is extra.⁵

What to look for

The parts of the site

Part	What you see	Look for
Cave mouth	A carved jungle and its creatures	The open mouth as a doorway
Inside the cave	Ganesha statue	Niches of the hermitage
Cave interior	Trilingga with small lingams	Statue fragments
Bathing pool	Female figures with pitchers	The pitchers they hold
Valley below	Stream and forest	The meeting of two streams

From the Bali Provincial Tourism Office and Wikipedia's article on the site.¹² ² ¹⁶ ¹³ ¹⁷ ⁸

The Pakerisan valley

The cave, the spring or both

Private, this page

Archaeology day

Goa Gajah, Gunung Kawi, Yeh Pulu

Hours: 7 hrs
Guide: English
Price: from $34

See the tour

Bali: Holy Spring Temple Tour with Purification Ritual

Half a day

Purification tour

Tirta Empul from Ubud

Hours: 3 hrs
Guide: English
Price: from $16

See the tour

Ubud: Rice Terrace & Tirta Empul Temple Tour with Waterfall

Full day

Spring and waterfalls

Tegallalang, Tirta Empul

Hours: 6 to 7
Guide: English
Price: from $26

See the tour

Decision helper

How much of the valley should you see?

Choose by your time and your knees

Goa Gajah on its own

About 27 km from Denpasar, close to Ubud, with one flight of steps.¹

The archaeology day

Museum, Gunung Kawi, Yeh Pulu and Goa Gajah in 7 hours.

Add Tirta Empul

The spring temple lies about 30 minutes from Ubud.¹⁸

Skip Gunung Kawi

Its cliff shrines are reached down a long flight of steps.¹⁹

Go in the morning

The Ministry names the morning as the best time for Goa Gajah.²⁰

In the northern part of the temple, lies a carved Cave of Nature in the shape of the letter ”T”. Inside this cave there is a Ganesha statue considered as the god of sciences.

Bali Provincial Tourism Office (Dinas Pariwisata Provinsi Bali)Source 2

Hindu and Buddhist in one place

Goa Gajah holds both Hindu and Buddhist imagery, which makes it one of the most interesting places on Bali for understanding how these traditions met on the island.²¹ The Ganesha and the lingams belong to the Hindu side, while carved stupas and parasols by the river speak of Buddhist monks.²²

The name of the site already appears in the Nagarakretagama, a court poem compiled by Mpu Prapanca in 1365.³ A short inscription in the cave, reading Kumon and Sahywangsa, is thought from the style of its letters to date from the 11th century.⁴ The Ministry of Tourism dates the caves and rock carvings back to the 9th century.⁹

The dates in different sources do not line up neatly, and that is part of the appeal. What is certain is that this was a hermitage long before it was a sight, and that the cave, the pools and the stream were laid out as one sacred landscape. Walking from one to the other is the best way to feel it. A local guide can point out details that are easy to walk past, from the small figures in the carved jungle to the worn steps that pilgrims have used for centuries, and turns a short stop into a lesson in how Bali's religion took shape.

Map

Where the temples stand on Bali

First the whole island with the temples on this site, then the slopes of East Bali around Lempuyang, then the river valley north of Ubud.

Map of Bali with Lempuyang, Tirta Gangga, Besakih, Tirta Empul, Goa Gajah, Ubud, Taman Ayun, Ulun Danu Beratan, Uluwatu and Kuta — The island

Map of East Bali with the Lempuyang gate, the summit temple of Lempuyang Luhur and the Tirta Gangga water palace — East Bali

Map of the valley north of Ubud with Tirta Empul, Gunung Kawi, Goa Gajah and Ubud Palace — Near Ubud

1
Lempuyang gate
The lowest of seven temples on Mount Lempuyang, where the split gate frames Mount Agung on a clear day.²³
In Google Maps ↗
2
Tirta Gangga
A water palace built in 1948 by the King of Karangasem; a 1-hour stop of the site tour.²⁴
In Google Maps ↗
3
Besakih
The mother temple, on the slope of Agung at about 1,000 m, a complex of 23 temples.²⁵ ²⁶
In Google Maps ↗
4
Tirta Empul
A spring temple founded in 962 AD, with 30 showers fed by the spring.²⁷ ²⁸
In Google Maps ↗
5
Goa Gajah
A carved cave about 27 km from Denpasar, named in a text of 1365.¹ ³
In Google Maps ↗
6
Ubud Palace
Meeting point of the site tour's group options in Ubud.
In Google Maps ↗
7
Taman Ayun
The royal water temple of Mengwi, part of the UNESCO subak landscape inscribed in 2012.²⁹ ³⁰
In Google Maps ↗
8
Ulun Danu Beratan
A lake temple in Candikuning, Tabanan, about 1.5 to 2 hours from Denpasar.³¹ ³²
In Google Maps ↗
9
Uluwatu
A sea temple on a 70-meter cliff, with the kecak at 6:00 PM.³³ ³⁴
In Google Maps ↗
10
Kuta
Central Parking Kuta, the other group meeting point of the site tour.
In Google Maps ↗
11
Lempuyang Luhur
The highest of the seven temples, at about 1,175 m, 2 to 4 hours there and back on foot.³⁵ ³⁶
In Google Maps ↗
12
Gunung Kawi
Ancient shrines cut into a rock cliff above the Pakerisan River.¹⁹
In Google Maps ↗

Open the map in Google Maps

Checklist

For the steps and the cave

Bring

Small notes for the ticket and parking
Shoes with grip for the steps
Water for the climb back

Respect

A sarong if your knees show
Quiet voices inside the cave
Stay out of the bathing pool

Cost calculator

Price a day in the valley

Pick a day out and enter your group size.

Purification tourTirta Empulfrom $16 Spring and waterfallsA full dayfrom $26

People 2

Total from$31

pp from $16

Check availabilityfree cancellation

The total is each temple day's lowest GetYourGuide price times your party size, shown in your currency at today's ECB rate; the booking page confirms the real amount.

Video

Exploring Goa Gajah, the Elephant Cave in Ubud

The player loads on your tap, not before.

The bathing pool uncovered last

In front of the cave lies a sunken bathing place. Dutch archaeologists rediscovered the cave in 1923, but the fountains and the bathing pool were only uncovered in 1954.¹⁰ The pool is lined with statues of women holding water pitchers.

There were seven of these figures, standing for seven holy rivers of India; one was destroyed in an earthquake.¹⁷ Many visitors stop here longer than at the cave itself, because the carving is fine and the open pool catches the light.

Do not climb on the edge of the pool or step into the water for a photo. The site is still a temple, and the bathing place is part of it. Stand on the paving above, look for the faces worn smooth by centuries of water, and then follow the path down towards the stream. The walk through the trees is shaded and cool even at midday, and it is where most visitors finally slow down and listen to the water.

Tickets, sarong and opening times

The Ministry of Tourism's temple guide lists the entrance at Rp 50,000 for adult foreign nationals and Rp 25,000 for children, with Rp 30,000 and Rp 15,000 for Indonesians.⁵ Pay at the counter by the car park, and keep small notes for parking.

Dress covers shoulders and knees, as at every temple, and visitors who arrive in shorts are given a sarong to tie around the waist before entering.⁶ ³⁷ Under local custom, people who are menstruating may not enter the temple; the tour on this page says so in its notes.

The Ministry gives the opening hours simply as morning to evening and recommends the morning.²⁰ Early visits are cooler on the steps and quieter in the cave, and the light falls better on the carved face before midday. In the rainy season the paths down to the stream can be slippery, so wear shoes with grip.

Goa Gajah with Gunung Kawi and Yeh Pulu

Goa Gajah is short enough to combine with the other sacred sites of the Pakerisan valley. Gunung Kawi, a little to the north, has ancient shrines carved into a rock cliff above the river, reached down a long flight of steps.¹⁹ Yeh Pulu, close to Goa Gajah, is another stop on the tour described below.

The tour on this page is a 7-hour private day with an English-speaking guide and pickup included: the archaeology section of the Bali Museum, Gunung Kawi, Yeh Pulu and Goa Gajah. On weekends and public holidays the museum section may be closed, and another cultural site takes its place.

It has 81 reviews averaging 4.95 and starts from $34. The operator warns of extensive walking, stairs and uneven paths, and does not recommend it for travelers with mobility issues. If stairs are hard for you, Goa Gajah alone is the gentlest of the three.

Fitting the cave into a day near Ubud

Because the site is close to Ubud, you can visit it on your own in a morning, or fold it into a longer day. The spring temple of Tirta Empul is a short drive north, about 30 minutes from Ubud, and many travellers see both before lunch.¹⁸

Go first thing, before the heat and the groups. Give yourself an hour at Goa Gajah, a little more if you want to walk down to the stream, and keep a sarong in your bag for the next temple. The day works best at a slow pace; the valley is not a place to rush.

For background before you go, it helps to know that the site was on UNESCO's Tentative List from 1995 until it was withdrawn in 2015.¹¹ It has no World Heritage label today, but it remains one of the most rewarding small sites on the island for anyone curious about how Bali's temples began.

Your temple day