Situs Gunung Padang digadang-gadang sebagai salah situs tertua di dunia. Situs berusia 10 ribu tahun ini disebut semasa dengan situs Göbekli Tepe di Turki. Situs ini diperkirakan pertama kali dibangun pada 8000 SM. Usianya bahkan lebih tua dari Piramida di Mesir yang dibangun sekitar 2500 SM, peninggalan kota tua Mahenjo Daro dan Harrapa di India yang berusia 3.000 tahun, dan budaya Mesopotamia yang berada di era yang sama.

"Ini penting untuk sejarah Indonesia. Karena di sejarah disebut peradaban kita mulai tahun 600 masehi di Kutai. Sebelumnya tidak ada peradaban besar, itu salah," jelas Danny Hilman Natawijaya, peneliti Pusat Penelitian Geoteknologi LIPI dikutip dari CNN Indonesia. com.

Sebab dalam sejarah tertulis kalau di Indonesia masa 10 ribu tahun lalu masih dalam masa bercocok tanam dan belum memiliki peradaban tinggi."Kalau dibilang ada bangunan masif advance (di masa itu), itu berarti tidak cocok dengan sejarah yang kita kenal [...] Jadi, kalau terungkap bisa mengubah sejarah dunia," tuturnya lagi.

Danny menyebut situs megalitikum Gunung Padang tidak dibangun pada satu era. Tapi struktur tersebut dibangun berkelanjutan dalam tiga masa dari 8.000 SM hingga 1.000 SM. Lapisan tertua yang berusia 10 ribu tahun tertimbun di bawah tanah. Sementara lapisan termuda berusia 3.000 tahun. Denny menyebut anehnya struktur bangunan candi ini seperti sengaja disamarkan.

"(Seperti) sengaja ditimbun pakai tanah dan didirikan megalith sederhana di atasnya. Ini masih jadi misteri, kenapa dibuat seperti itu. Kecenderungannya sih disamarkan biar tidak dijarah orang," ujar Ketua Koordinator Penelitian Gunung Padang itu.

Danny juga mengungkap kalau mereka telah melakukan berbagai studi untuk membuktikan bahwa ada struktur dibawah situs megalitikum itu. "Studi melibatkan berbagai ahli studi sudah lengkap. Kami juga sudah melakukan enam pengeboran sedalam 30 meter dan penggalian 11 meter."

Namun, Denny menyayangkan sikap pemerintah yang seakan tidak pedulidengan situs yang digadang-gadang sebagai situs tertua di dunia. Sebab, sejak berakhirnya pemerintahan SBY, proyek pemugaran situs ini tak lagi berlanjut. "Nasibnya agak terkatung-katung, kurang diperhatikan. Padahal merupakan warisan Indonesia yang besar. Bukan hanya untuk ilmu pengetahuan, tapi bisa jadi ikon pariwisata yang tidak kalah dengan piramida Iza," tandasnya.

Keputusan untuk melakukan pemugaran sebelumnya telah dituangkan dalam Perpres nomor 148 tahun 2014 tentang Pengembangan, Pelindungan, Penelitian, Pemanfaatan, dan Pengelolaan Situs Gunung Padang. Permen Kemendikbud tentang pelestarian dan pengelolaan Gunung Padang, dan Pergub Jawa Barat tenteng penelitian Gunung Padang.

WASHINGTON — An enormous pyramid-like structure in Indonesia that may represent the remains of an ancient temple hid underground for thousands of years.

Scientists presented evidence of the remarkable construction Dec. 12 here at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Located atop Mount Padang in West Java, the structure is topped by an archaeological site that was discovered in the early 19th century and holds rows of ancient stone pillars. But the sloping "hill" underneath isn't part of the natural, rocky landscape; it was crafted by human hands, scientists discovered. [The 25 Most Mysterious Archaeological Finds on Earth]

"What is previously seen as just surface building, it's going down — and it's a huge structure," said Andang Bachtiar, an independent geologist from Indonesia who supervised core drilling and soil analysis for the project.

Though the buried structure may superficially resemble a pyramid, it differs from similar pyramids built by the Mayans, Danny Hilman Natawidjaja, lead project researcher and a senior scientist with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, told Live Science. While Mayan pyramids tend to be symmetrical, this structure is elongated, with what appears to be a half-circle in the front.

"It's a unique temple," Natawidjaja said.

He and his colleagues suspected that the exposed megalith might be more than it appeared, because some partly exposed features in the existing archaeological site didn't quite match the standing stones. The "peculiar" shape of the hill also stood out from the landscape, he said.

"It's not like the surrounding topography, which is very much eroded. This looks very young. It looked artificial to us," Natawidjaja explained.

Using an array of techniques to peer underground — including ground-penetrating radar surveys, X-ray tomography, 2D and 3D imaging, core drilling, and excavations — the researchers gradually uncovered several layers of a sizable structure. It spread over an area of around 15 hectares (150,000 square meters) and had been built up over millennia, with layers representing different periods.

At the very top were pillars of basalt rocks framing step terraces, with other arrangements of rock columns "forming walls, paths and spaces," the scientists reported at AGU. They estimated this layer to be about 3,000 to 3,500 years old.

Underneath the surface, to a depth of about 10 feet (3 m), was a second layer of similar rock columns, thought to be 7,500 to 8,300 years old. And a third layer, extending 49 feet (15 m) below the surface, is more than 9,000 years old; it could even date to 28,000 years ago, according to the researchers. Their surveys also detected multiple chambers underground, Natawidjaja added.

Today, local people still use the exposed site at the top of the structure as a sacred destination for prayer and meditation, and this could also be how it was used thousands of years ago, Natawidjaja said.