Ryōan-ji

Ryōan-ji has the most famous rock garden in the world, and nobody knows what it means. Fifteen stones arranged in five groups on a bed of raked white gravel, enclosed by a low clay wall that's been stained over centuries by the oil used to weatherproof it. The garden was created around 1500 and no record exists of who designed it or why. Scholars have been arguing about it ever since.

The deliberate puzzle is that from any seated position on the viewing platform, you can only see fourteen of the fifteen stones — one is always hidden. Some interpret this as a Buddhist teaching about the impossibility of perceiving the complete truth. Others see islands in an ocean, mountains above clouds, or a tiger carrying cubs across a river. The garden's designer left no explanation, and the temple has never endorsed any single interpretation, which may be the most Zen thing about it.

The garden is much smaller than photographs suggest — just 25 by 10 metres — and the experience of sitting on the wooden veranda in silence, watching other people try to count stones, is oddly meditative even in a crowd. The rest of the temple grounds are often overlooked but worth exploring — a pond garden surrounds the temple with a walking path through maples and pines, and there's a famous stone water basin inscribed with a riddle that reads 'I learn only to be contented.' Come early, sit quietly, and don't try too hard to figure it out. That might be the point.