Mount Batur Facts: Height, Eruptions, Caldera and Geopark
The numbers behind the mountain you are about to climb, each one traced to the body that publishes it — UNESCO, Indonesia’s ministry of energy and mineral resources, and the volcanological survey that watches it daily.
1,717 metres — the summit, and what stands around it
Mount Batur reaches 1,717 metres, which makes it modest by Indonesian standards and unusually approachable for an active volcano. The cone itself rises about 700 metres above the floor of the caldera it stands in, and that caldera holds a lake along its south-eastern side.
| Feature | Figure |
|---|---|
| Summit elevation | 1,717 m |
| Height of the cone above the caldera floor | about 700 m |
| Outer caldera | 10 × 13 km |
| Inner caldera | 7.5 km across |
| Lake Batur | about 7 km long, 1.5 km wide |
| Geopark area | 36,640 hectares |
| Villages inside the geopark | 15, with a population of 94,850 |
| Recorded eruptions, 1804–2000 | at least 22 |
| Current alert level | Level I (Normal), the lowest of four |
Figures published by UNESCO’s International Geoscience and Geoparks Programme unless noted.
A caldera inside a caldera
What makes the landscape unusual is not the cone but the two rings around it. An outer caldera roughly 10 by 13 kilometres formed first; a second, smaller collapse of about 7.5 kilometres happened inside it. UNESCO dates both to less than 30,000 years ago, and the geological literature puts the first at roughly 29,300 years and the second at about 20,150.
Stand on the rim at Penelokan and you are looking at the result: a bowl with a young volcano growing in the middle of it and a lake filling the low side. That shape is why the caldera, rather than the mountain, carries the international designation.
Twenty-two eruptions, 1804 to 2000
Batur is genuinely active and has been throughout the period anyone has kept records. UNESCO counts at least 22 eruptions between 1804 and 2000. Two of them shaped what visitors see today.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1804 | The first documented eruption of the modern record |
| 1926 | Lava buried the village of Batur and its temple; the community rebuilt both on the caldera rim at Kintamani |
| 1963 | The eruption that left the black lava field the jeep tours cross |
| 2000 | The most recent eruption on the record |
Eruption dates as recorded by UNESCO and the geological record; the 1926 account of the temple is from the Bali provincial tourism office.
The 1926 flow is the story guides tell on the way up. It destroyed the village on the caldera floor and its temple, and the community moved to the rim and rebuilt — which is why Pura Ulun Danu Batur, one of Bali’s most important water temples, now stands above the caldera rather than beside the lake.
Level I, Normal. Indonesia’s volcanological survey publishes a live alert level for every monitored volcano on a four-step scale. Batur sits at the lowest step, defined as fluctuating readings with no significant increase in activity. Check it again before you travel.
Indonesia’s first UNESCO Global Geopark
Batur Caldera was admitted to the Global Geoparks Network on 20 September 2012, the first site in Indonesia to join it. The decision was announced at the European Geoparks Conference in Arouca, Portugal, and the certificate was handed over by UNESCO’s chief geopark evaluator. When UNESCO created the Global Geopark label in 2015, Batur carried across into it.
The designated area covers 36,640 hectares and takes in fifteen villages with a combined population of just under 95,000. It protects the caldera, the lake and the cone together, on the argument that they only make sense as one landscape.
Lake Batur and the villages in the bowl
The lake fills the south-eastern side of the outer caldera, roughly seven kilometres long and a kilometre and a half wide, and it is the largest body of fresh water in Bali. Villages sit around its shore and on the slopes above it, farming the volcanic soil that makes Kintamani oranges and coffee. The Kintamani dog, one of the few recognised Indonesian breeds, comes from a village inside the same caldera.
Batur, Agung and Abang — the three you can see
From the summit at dawn you are looking at the other two mountains that define eastern Bali. Batur is the smallest and the one people climb; Agung is the island’s highest and its most sacred; Abang stands between them on the caldera rim.
| Mountain | Height | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Mount Batur | 1,717 m | Active, climbed daily, two hours to the summit |
| Mount Abang | 2,152 m | The high point of the caldera rim, forested, quiet |
| Mount Agung | 3,031 m | Bali’s highest and most sacred, a six-hour climb |
Elevations as published by the Indonesian geological agency and UNESCO.
Standing on it beats reading about it
The guides tell most of this on the way up, with the caldera underneath you and the light coming.
Questions about the volcano
How high is Mount Batur?
1,717 metres. The active cone rises about 700 metres above the floor of the caldera it stands in, beside Lake Batur.
Is Mount Batur an active volcano?
Yes. It has erupted at least 22 times between 1804 and 2000 and sits at Level I, Normal, on Indonesia's monitoring scale — the lowest of four steps, meaning no significant change in activity.
When did Mount Batur last erupt?
In 2000. The 1963 eruption left the black lava field the jeep tours cross, and the 1926 flow buried the village of Batur and its temple, both of which were rebuilt on the caldera rim.
Why is Mount Batur a UNESCO geopark?
For its double caldera and the crescent lake inside it. Batur Caldera joined the Global Geoparks Network in September 2012, the first site in Indonesia to do so, and carries the UNESCO Global Geopark label.
Every departure that takes you onto it is compared on mount batur bike tour, and the experience page sets out what the morning is actually like.
Compare the departures on Mount Batur Tours.