Indonesia is a huge country of Southeast Asia, stretching along both sides of the Equator for more than 46 degrees of longitude (roughly 5100 km or 3200 miles). It occupies 17,504 islands, by official count, including more than 6000 inhabited islands. It is the world's fourth most populous nation with a population currently estinated at about 280 million. More than half of the population lives on the island of Java. Other major islands include Sumatra in the west, Borneo (shared with Malaysia and Brunei) in the northwest, Sulawesi in the northeast, and the eastern half of New Guinea in the far east. Other well known islands include Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, and Timor (shared with independent East Timor) along the south side of the country. The unification of the country was accomplished over many years of struggle by Dutch colonial authorities. The Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602 to establish and extend Dutch administration, and after the company folded the Netherlands established the Dutch East Indies colony and gradually extended its boundaries to reach the present boundaries of Indonesia. During World War II Japan occupied the islands from March 1942 to the end of the war in 1945. The Republic of Indonesia proclaimed its independence immediately after the war ended and following some conflict the Netherlands accepted the country's independnece in 1949. Sumatra (Sumatera in Indonesian) is the world's sixth largest island and the westernmost of the major islands of Indonesia. It is separated from Malaysia to the north by the Malacca Strait, from Kalimantan (Borneo) to the northeast by the broad Karimata Strait, and from Java to the southeast by the Sunda Strait. Its south coast faces the open Indian Ocean. The population of Sumatra is about 60 million. Located at the northwestern end of Sumatra, Aceh (pronounced AH-chay in English) was a powerful independent sultanate for more than three centuries before bring brought, more or less, under Dutch control in the early 20th century. It has been the scene of a lengthy and sometimes violent separatist movement, first against Dutch control and then against Indonesian administration. Following the disastrous tsunami of 26 December 2004 a peace agreement was negotiated with the help of Finnish diplomats and signed in August 2005. Indonesia is divided into 38 provinces (provinsi) and the provinces are subdivided into county units called regencies (kabupaten). Aceh is a province of Indonesia but under the peace agreement it is governed as a special territory (daerah istimewa) enjoying a considerable degree of autonomy. The capital is Banda Aceh and the territory has a population of roughly four million. This page includes lighthouses of the eastern half of the territory, facing the Andaman Sea to the north and the Strait of Malacca to the east. There's another page for Western Aceh. More than 700 languages are spoken in Indonesia. The official national language, Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), was standardized from a form of Malay that served as a lingua franca across the archipelago. In Indonesian a lighthouse is a mercusuar or a menara suar. Tanjung is a cape, ujung is a headland or point of land, bukit is a hill, sungai is a river, kuala or muara is an estuary or river mouth, pulau is an island, karang is a reef, batu is a rock, laut is a sea, selat is a strait, teluk is a bay, pelabuhan is a harbor, and labuhan is a port. Aids to navigation in Indonesia are operated and maintained by the Directorate of Marine Navigation within the Directorate General of Sea Transportation. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume F of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Le Meule Light, Sabang, March 2010 Aceh Department of Marine and Fisheries photo |
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![]() Front (left) and Rear Range Lights, Blang Lancang, January 2018 Google Maps photo by Zulfitriansyah Putra |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: East: West Malaysia West Coast | Southeast: Northeastern Sumatra | Southwest: Western Aceh
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted April 13, 2006. Checked and revised March 3, 2025. Lighthouses: 37. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.