---
node: dest_tanah_lot
type: destination
slug: tanah_lot
title: "Tanah Lot"
lead: "Tanah Lot is a sea temple on a rock offshore in south-west Bali, cut off by water at high tide and walkable at low. It is one of the chain of temples the sixteenth-century priest Nirartha founded around the island's coast."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: dest_tanah_lot.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bali_-_Pura_Tanah_Lot,_20220827_0958_1114.jpg"
image_author: "Jakub Hałun"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

## Overview

The rock was eroding badly enough by the 1980s to threaten the temple, and about a third of what you see is engineered replacement stone, funded by a Japanese loan and coloured to match. Non-worshippers cannot enter the temple itself; the walk out is to its base, where a priest offers a blessing with spring water from the rock. The sea snakes in the caves below are venomous, locally said to guard the place, and best left alone.

## Highlights

Check the tide before you go, since the crossing is only possible for a few hours either side of low water. Sunset is the reason most people come and the crowd is proportionate — the cliff path north towards Batu Bolong gives the same view with a fraction of the people. The temple complex charges an entrance fee and closes the causeway when the swell is up.