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 140 million residents it is the world's most populous island. The national capital, Jakarta, is on the northwestern coast of Java. Indonesia is divided into 38 provinces (provinsi) and the provinces are subdivided into county units called regencies (kabupaten). This page includes lighthouses of the southern coast of Java, including the Yogyakarta Special Region and the south coast of Central Java Province. Central Java Province has two coasts: a north coast facing the Java Sea and a south coast facing the Indian Ocean. Lighthouses of the north coast are described on the North Central 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. 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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Yogyakarta Special Region Lighthouses
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Central Java Province South Coast Lighthouses
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![]() Teluk Penyu (Cilacap Main) Light, Cilacap, September 2013 Google Maps photo by Wahyu Budhi |
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![]() Teluk Penyu Second Range Front Light, Cilacap, August 2010 ex-Panoramio photo copyright Soga Soegiarto; used by permission |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: East: Southeastern Java | West: Southwestern Java
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Posted April 13, 2006. Checked and revised October 6, 2024. Lighthouses: 28. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.