Sambisari Temple located in Sambisari village, Purwomartani, Kalasan District, Sleman, Yogyakarta. The Sambisari Temple was an homage to Shiva and was built in the early 9th century AD by Rakai Garung, king of the Mataram kingdoms.
Sambisari temple was discovered accidentally by a farmer digging in the fields and feeling the spade strike a hard object. Once excavated and observed, it was stone decorated with carvings. Based on these reports, the Yogyakarta Archaeological Centre conducted research and excavation. Based on the results of the 1966 study, these lands are ruins of the temple buried by heaps of sand and rock spewed by Mount Merapi in 1906. Reconstruction and restoration of the temple finished in 1987.
This temple is about 6.5 meters below ground level, so the temple would not be visible. Supposedly, the surface area around Sambisari temple is not higher than the land where Sambisari is. Still, sand and stones carried by the eruption of Mount Merapi in the year 1006 were dumped. Consequently, Sambisari participates in burial and becomes lower than the surrounding ground level. The high main temple reaches 7.5 meters, stands on a shelf that houses a square base measuring 13.65 square meters with a height of about 2 meters, and the body of the temple is 5 square meters.