Man Builds “Chicken Shaped” Prayer House For All Religion In The Middle Of Indonesian Jungle

Buried deep inside the Indonesian jungle is a very odd structure, shaped like a giant chicken. The long abandoned construction, locally known as Gereja Ayam (Chicken Church), is a popular tourist attraction in the hills of Magelang, Central Java. Oddity Central has more:

Word on the internet is this strange site was designed to be a church, but according to its creator, the building is neither a chicken nor a church.

Daniel Alamsjah, 67, revealed that he was working in Jakarta when he suddenly received a divine message from God to build a prayer room in the form of a dove. “Perhaps because of my Christian faith, people thought I was building a church,” he said. “But it’s not a church. I was building a prayer house, a place for people who believe in God.”

The vision came to him in 1989, when he was visiting his wife’s family in Magelang. The landscape looked incredibly familiar, and he realised that he’d seen it in his dreams. “I prayed there that night and I got a revelation that I must build the prayer house in that spot,” he said.

Within six months, locals offered him about 3,000 square meters of land on Rhema Hill for two million rupiah ($170). He paid off the amount over four years, and began to construct his dream project in 1994. The place is now open to visitors of all religions – Buddhists, Muslims, and Christians travel there to use it for their own style of worship.