Gereja Ayam: Mysterious chicken church in Indonesia jungle

The ‘Chicken Church,’ also called Gereja Ayam, is a massive hen-shaped abandoned edifice in the center of the dense jungle of Java, Indonesia’s largest island. It’s a massive structure, a site of worship built to accommodate pilgrims of all faiths, including Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians.

It was built by Daniel Alamsjahche, a man who claimed to have received a supernatural revelation asking him to construct an animal-shaped prayer house to serve persons of all faiths who were in need during the end of the 1980s.

In 1990, Alamsjah identified the Magelang hills as the source of its light and started construction on the temple with the intention of producing a dove, a symbol of peace and world harmony. Despite his best efforts, the chapel was quickly nicknamed the “chicken church.”

The ambitious proposal also featured a space set aside for a drug rehabilitation facility, as well as a center for children with impairments and adults with mental illnesses, however, these institutions’ operations were halted in 2000 owing to exorbitant expenses.

Since then, Gereja Ayam has remained an incomplete project and a strange abandoned edifice that, despite its opulent and maybe even scary aspect, has become one of the country’s most popular tourist spots.