The world seems to take notice of this remarkable Borobudur Temple with its phenomenal architecture through time. Do you believe that our ancestors constructed the great structure without the use of any cement?
Historically, the Borobudur was built by the Kingdom of Mataram in the Syailendra Dynasty, between 750 and 850 AD. Technology back then is not as advanced as it is today.
There was no cement or adhesive to hold such massive stones together. So, how, in fact, was it accomplished?
Archaeologists explain that the hardest part of constructing Borobudur was the preparation of the hill itself. It needed so many people to pile up and level the soil.
Then, after the ground was properly set, some 55,000 cubic meters of andesite stone was laid. The stones were not native and were quarried, transported, carved, and fitted with great care on the spot.
Four people were needed to carry one block, if you can imagine how much one of those blocks weighed.
And as far as placing the stones were concerned, people of that time never used any cement or even egg whites as glue. The method they used for bricks was of rubbing stones each other and then applying water to fix. For other than brick stones, they used a different method.
They carved the stones in such a way that they would help them come together and interlock. These joints are now better known as the interlock system. This system almost resembled building a jigsaw puzzle, all they had to do was fit each stone into place until it locked in with the other. Stross states that Archaeologists also seem to refer that the workers were even endangered as some of them lost lives during the construction process by falling, for example, or getting crushed under stones.
Nevertheless, Borobudur was completed at last and remains today a completed monument, one of the greatest architectural achievements of all time in Indonesia.