A water moat
A broad channel round the temple.
Anandajoti — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Anandajoti — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Anandajoti — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Anandajoti — CC BY-SA 4.0
The temple of the old kingdom of Mengwi, built in 1634 as the royal temple of its ruling family, whose name means beautiful garden. A wide moat-like channel surrounds it, so visitors enter across a bridge and through a stone gateway into neat, stepped grassy courtyards, with black multi-tiered shrines at the top. The temple is part of the subak irrigation cultural landscape added to UNESCO's World Heritage list in 2012, because of its role in organising the area's water. The inner courtyard is closed to visitors, but they walk around its low wall and see the shrines clearly, and it is calm, less crowded than the coastal temples. Entry is about fifty thousand rupiah for foreign adults and about thirty-five thousand for children. Bali's tourist levy, one hundred and fifty thousand rupiah per foreign visitor, is separate. An hour is enough, and it lies on the way from the south to Bedugul and Ulun Danu Beratan, or to Tanah Lot, so make it a short stop on that trip.
A broad channel round the temple.
Mengwi's royal temple.
Multi-tiered towers.
Mengwi, Badung, about 18 km north-west of Denpasar
As a short stop on the way to Bedugul or Tanah Lot, yes: it is calm and beautifully laid out. On its own it is not worth a long trip.