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. Sumatra (Sumatera in the Indonesian spelling) 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 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. Indonesia is divided into 38 provinces (provinsi) and the provinces are subdivided into county units called regencies (kabupaten). Sumatra includes eight of the provinces. This page includes lighthouses of the west coast of North Sumatra Province. Off its west coat North Sumatra also includes the Batu Islands and the large island of Nias; lighthouses of those islands are described on the Nias page. Lighthouses of the east coast of the province are described on the Northeastern Sumatra 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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Mentawai Strait Lighthouses
Sumatra West Coast Lighthouses
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Western Aceh | South: Western Sumatra | West: Nias
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted April 13, 2006. Checked and revised April 30, 2025. Lighthouses: 24. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.