The Golden Pavilion is actually a Zen Buddhist Temple known as Kinkaku-ji. The Temple is located in Kyoto, Japan. The history of Kinkaku-ji goes back to 1397, when a villa called Kitayama-dai was purchased and transformed into the Kinkaku-ji complex.
Why it is special: A World Heritage site, the Temple is given the designation of a National Special Historic Site as well as National Special Landscape. A three-storey building, the top two storeys of the Kinkaku-ji are made with pure gold leaf, giving it its name as the ‘Golden Pavilion’. The Temple itself incorporates the Shinden, Zen and Samurai styles of architecture; each on a different floor.
