An isolated Indonesian church built in the shape of a chicken has become one of the country's most interesting tourist attractions with people split on thinking it's either a bad joke or haunted.

Known as the Gereja Ayam, it was built by a man in the 1990s and was originally supposed to resemble a dove.

The church was the brainchild of Daniel Alamsjah who said that the idea of the church was given to him in a dream by God.

He had envisioned the Chicken Church to be a safe space for people of all religions to commune but in the years since it has become something of a laughing stock due to its avian design.

Daniel claimed that in his dream he saw a white dove on top of a hill and a beautiful view behind it.

In the dream, the dove spoke to Daniel and asked him to build a house of worship.

One day, Daniel chanced upon the identical view on the top of a hill in a forest deep inside of Magelang jungle on the island of Java and decided to fulfil the dove's prophecy.

Daniel set to work building his church but due to financial difficulties and staunch local resistance at the idea of his feathery cathedral, it was never completed.

For nearly 20 years after the church was partially built, it was left to slowly decay in the isolated forest.

Naturally, this had led some superstitious locals to theorize that the lonely chicken church is haunted.

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Atlas Obscura reports that one person claimed to have seen kuntilanak demons crawling over the church.

In Indonesian folklore, a kuntilanak is a female vampire.

Whether or not the person actually just saw an out-of-control hen party will doubtless never be known.

Today it is possible to visit the church and take pictures of its quirky insides.

At the top of the great chicken's head, a viewing platform remains which shows the same view that the Dove revealed to Daniel in his dream.

However, some parts of the church have been vandalised by graffiti after it became popular.

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