The Republic of Indonesia has been independent since 1945 after having been the Dutch East Indies for more than 350 years. It is a huge country, stretching along both sides of the Equator for more than 46 degrees of longitude (roughly 5100 km or 3200 miles). Comprised of some 17,000 islands (more than 6000 inhabited islands), it has hundreds of major aids to navigation. The island of Java (Jawa in Indonesian) is the heart of the country and home to 57% of the population. In fact, with more than 150 million residents it is the world's most populous island. The national capital, Jakarta, is on the northwestern coast of Java. The island is about 1000 km (620 mi) long and up to 210 km (130 mi) wide, with a mountainous spine that includes about three dozen historically active volcanos. Indonesia is divided into 38 provinces (provinsi) and the provinces are subdivided into county units called regencies (kabupaten). This page includes lighthouses of the well-populated northwestern coast of Java, including the Jakarta Special Capital Region and the north coast of West Java Province. West Java Province has two coasts: a north coast facing the Java Sea and a south coast facing the Indian Ocean. Lighthouses of the southern coast are listed on the Southwestern Java page. 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. The original Dutch names of historic lighthouses, if known, are shown in curly brackets {}. 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. DSI numbers, if available, are the Indinesian light list numbers. Admiralty numbers are from volume Q of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Edam (Pulau Damar) Light, Jakarta, July 2023 ex-Google Maps photo by Jejak Voc |
Jakarta Special Capital Region Lighthouses
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Jawa Barat (West Java) Province North Coast Lighthouses
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![]() Cirebon Light, Cirebon, October 2020 Google Maps photo by Sidik Sobarudin |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Kalimantan (Borneo) | East: North Central Java | West: Southwestern Java
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted April 13, 2006. Checked and revised August 28, 2024. Lighthouses: 40. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.