[caption id="attachment_23194" align="alignleft" width="199" caption="Bajang Ratu gate (Wikipedia)"][/caption] Time moves forward, yet it proves that people loves to look back. We never stops admiring historical remnants and ancient sites. Seven Wonders, a famous term among travellers, is one of obvious evidence. Indonesia has hundreds, maybe thousands, attractive sites related to its culture in the past. One of the largest situated in Mojokerto, is the site of Trowulan. Trowulan is the name of a subdistrict situated at the altitude of 57m above sea level, some 10km west from the downtown of Mojokerto or 55km southeast from Surabaya. The Majapahit site covers approximately 100 square km. From ancient structures and relics discovered on this area, archaeologists concluded that this site was the capital of the great Majapahit kingdom. Majapahit was the largest empire in Southeast Asia and Pacific during 13th and 14th century. Its territory that covered most part of South East Asian archipelago as far as present-day Cambodia and Philipines to the north proved its massive influence at that time. An archeologic research revealed that early 14th century this kingdom managed to make diplomatic and trade relation with Japanese kingdom under Kamakura. Its glory is also reflected from its architectural technology seen from discovered structures. It shows that all building that has religious as well as legitimation enforcer function was made of brick. Mass usage as well as production of brick shown advance technology the empire had reached. [caption id="attachment_23196" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Tikus Temple's bathing pond (Wikipedia)"][/caption] These brick structures is now the main attraction of Trowulan ancient site. Among them are temples such as Menakjinggo, Tikus, Kedaton temple complex, Brahu, Gentong, and Bhre Kahuripan. Other structures that still remain intact are Segaran pool, Waringin Lawang gate, Bajang Ratu gate, cemetery of Princess Campa, Panjang cemetery, Troloyo cemetery complex. Beside structures, visitors can also witness ancient relics collected by Trowulan Museum. Only few people knew that this museum was existed since 1926. Established during the Dutch colonial, it was Oudheidkundige Vereeneging Majapahit (OVM). This museum was established by Henri Maclaine Pont, a Dutch architect and archaeologist, and Mojokerto regent Kanjeng Adipati Ario Kromodjojo Adinegoro. During Japanese invasion in 1942, this museum was closed for Pont got arrested by Japanese army. After long left abandoned since then, this museum was moved into present building in 1987. This museum has nine sections and collects as many as 88,000 historical relics of Majapahit empire. On the room at the front, visitor will see some information related to both this museum and its object of interest. The main section where most relics are displayed according to a time sequence is right on the next room. The others are Temporary Exhibition Room, Multimedia Room, and an open air space. Last October, Indonesian Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Indonesia submitted Trowulan as UNESCO World Heritage list. This effort, however, was distracted by the contradiction from the construction of Trowulan Center, a tourism facility, that sacrifice large part of the ancient site. The question is, should a facility built by sacrificing what it is supposed to facilitate?
