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. Sulawesi (Celebes) is a major island in the northern part of the country. Shaped like an artistically drawn letter K, Sulawesi consists mostly of four narrow peninsulas. The Makassar Strait separates Sulawesi from Kalimantan (Borneo) to the west. The Celebes Sea is north of the island, the Molucca Sea is on the northeast, the Banda Sea is to the southeast, and the Flores Sea is on the south. Indonesia is divided into 34 provinces and the provinces are subdivided into regencies (kabupaten). This page includes lighthouses on the east side of the island facing the Gulf of Tomini in the northern half of Sulawesi Tengah (Central Sulawesi) Province. Lighthouses on the east side of the island facing the Banda Sea in the southern half of the province are described on the Eastern Sulawesi page. The province also has a coast on the west side of the island; lighthouses on that coast are described on the Western Sulawesi 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. 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 volumes F and Q of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Paranggi Light, Ampibabo, June 2022 Google Maps photo by Yeremia Apridianto |
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![]() Parigi Light, Parigi, November 2021 Google Maps street view |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Northern Sulawesi | East: North Maluku | Southeast: Central Maluku | South: Eastern Sulawesi | West: Western Sulawesi
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Posted December 18, 2008. Checked and revised July 8, 2024. Lighthouses: 30. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.