World’s weirdest abandoned ‘church’ built by man who ‘had vision from God’ left to crumble in jungle for decades
THE world’s most bizarre looking church was left abandoned for over two decades after it was built by a man who claims he had a vision from God.
A crumbling and half finished giant chicken shaped building sat overlooking a jungle in Indonesia for 24 years before it became a huge tourist attraction overnight despite baffling everyone who ever saw it.
Known as Gereja Ayam, the church is famous for its wacky design that was created by a Christian man called Daniel Alamsjah back in 1990.
Despite being the spitting image of a glorious chicken, Daniel was actually trying to build a majestic white dove after he had a dream telling him to build a church fit for all religions.
According to Daniel, he was told by a godly voice during a prayer to create the perfect hub of all communities through a new commune.
The vision that was beamed down to Daniel was of a clean white dove sitting at the top of a hill.
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After regarding the vision as a hallucination he continued with her daily life until one day he went to meet his boss on top of Rhema Hill in Magelang.
When he waded through the jungle and descended to the hilltop Daniel was amazed by what was before him.
He said: “It was the same hill and the same view that I saw in my vision.”
Daniel went on to pay just £1,600 for an acres worth of land on top of the hill as he started to build his dream church.
Alongside his crew of 30 construction workers, Daniel set about building the chicken using handmade cement, bricks, sand and scrap metal.
A member of the crew said: “It did look like a dove in the beginning But then we added the crown.
“Daniel wanted it to symbolize holiness, but people thought it was a rooster crest. So they started calling it a chicken instead of a dove.”
Although major issues quickly plagued the construction process as planning permission took four years to be agreed.
But the biggest issue that enraged locals was that a Christian man was building a church in a predominantly Muslim area.
Thousands of complaints were reportedly filed over the church despite Daniel’s insistence the building was made to be inclusive and included separate rooms for different faiths.
But ultimately it failed over money woes.
A lack of cash in the ambitious project meant Daniel pulled the plug on the idea leaving just a competed ground floor and a chicken carcass.
The second and third floor was unfinished and virtually untouched with many of the underground prayer rooms being left as just holes in the ground.
After being left abandoned in 2000 due to a lack of cash the giant avian structure tumbled into disrepair as graffiti was scrawled across the slowly decaying walls.
With the support beams holding the chicken up being moments away from crashing to the floor at any second.
Outside, overgrown weeds transformed the angelic view into a desolate patch of land barely ever seen.
For years it remained an unused relic of a peculiar past with huge speculation over why it was built in the first place with some people even labelling it as a haunted house.
COMEBACK CHICK
After curious tourists spotted a rouge chicken’s head above a jungle clearing in 2015 the church quickly became a viral sensation.
Pictures of the structure hit the internet leading to thousands of new faces making the climb up to Rhema Hill.
At its peak, 2,000 tourists would get pictures with the chicken church every week and by this point Daniel had returned to the building.
Charging people less than £1 to walk inside the building and explore the grounds, Daniel saw his vision finally coming to life as a whole community was coming together to see the chicken in all its glory.
After making enough cash from the visits the building was given a fresh coat of paint with benches installed inside for people to sit on.
Despite never making it as an all-inclusive church the chicken shaped wonder has etched itself into the memories of thousands as one of the weirdest attractions in the world.
It comes as chilling pictures of the world’s creepiest island were revealed as a place where thousands were forced to starve to death.
Hashima sits just off the Japanese coast and is a tiny piece of land plagued by death and with a dark and twisted past.
As an urban explorer also discovered an abandoned ghost town – with a church, a post office and several homes all left to rot.
The creepy abandoned community was once home to hundreds but now it is slowly decaying with buildings falling apart.