Mount Batur

Mount Batur - the most important information

Mount Batur (Gunung Batur) is an active volcano located at the center of two concentric calderas northwest of Mount Agung on the island of Bali, Indonesia. The southeast side of the larger 10×13 km caldera contains a caldera lake. The caldera is populated and includes the four main villages of Kedisan, Songan, Trunyan, and Toya Bungkah, among a total of 15 villages.

History of the Mount Batur

Both the larger caldera, and a smaller 7.5 km caldera were formed by a collapse of the magma chamber, the first larger collapse taking place about 29,300 years ago, and the second inner caldera collapsing about 20,150 years ago. Another estimate of the inner caldera's formation date, formed during emplacement of the Bali (or Ubud) ignimbrite, has been dated at about 23,670 and 28,500 years ago. The first documented eruption was in 1804 and the most recent was in 2000. Heavy sedimentation in Mount Batur Caldera decreases the water in the lake. A plan was devised to restrict locations around the lake for tourist accommodations, to inform residents of the problems of fish farm cages in the lake, and perhaps to dredge some of the natural sedimentations from volcanic ash. On 20 September 2012 UNESCO made Mount Batur Caldera a part of the Global Geoparks Network.

What to do on the Mount Batur?

This location is full of activities. Of course that you can enjoy sightseeing and beautiful nature but there are a lot of activities that you do here. Here you have a lot of restaurants and coffee places where you can enjoy a peaceful day. All the activities you can book when you are booking your tour so it would be best to see in what are you the most interested. To help you, here is the list of the activities:

Enjoying in Hot Spring in peaceful dinner
Trekking & Rafting as a more adventurous activity
Trek Bali & Swing with beautiful nature
Black Lava Cycling

Tickets for the Mount Batur

You can visit this mountain every single day during the year. Going here is free, and you would have to pay just for the transportation. But, to get the best of everything and to get to fully experience you should book one of the tours. There are different tours, starting with camping, jeep adventure, and many more. The prices start at 40 USD and go all up to 80 USD. Before going we are suggesting you check out the official Mount Batur site to book your tour and arrange everything.

How to get to Mount Batur?

Mount Batur is easy to get to from anywhere in Bali. You just have to figure out your transportation to get there – it takes about 1.5 hours by car from Ubud and about 2-2.5 hours from Seminyak. In Bali, car or taxi are the best means of transportation; it is the fastest and cheapest.

Mount Batur trivia:

This is considered the second most important mountain and temple in Bali. The main reason is that Mount Bali lake feeds a network of many rivers, streams, and holy springs in all directions of Bali.
Mount Batur is considered the home of the one of two most important gods in Bali. The goddess is providing life to Bali, through the water.
Every year the rice farmers from the villages nearby Ubud gather around the lake to offer a buffalo to ensure the lake provides sufficient water and fertility for the next year.
Every 10 years a ceremony takes place here to honor the goddess. Chicken, buffalos, geese, goats, and pigs adorned in gold are being drowned in Lake Batur.
If you want to learn more about the Mountain and Lake, there is a museum which is called the Batur Geopark Museum. The entrance here is free.
Geologists believe that Mount Batur used to be a supervolcano that used to be around 3500m above sea level.