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. Indonesia is divided into 38 provinces (provinsi) and the provinces are subdivided into county units called regencies (kabupaten). The province of Bangka Belitung Islands, separated from South Sumatra Province in 2000, includes the islands of Bangka and Belitung off the southeast coast of the much larger island of Sumatra. The narrow Bangka Strait separates Bangka from Sumatra; the Gaspar Strait (usually called the Gelasa Strait in this area) separates Bangka from Belitung, and the broad Karimata Strait separates Belitung from Borneo to the northeast. The Java Sea lies to the south of the islands and the Natuna Sea lies to the north. This page describes the lighthouses of Bangka; there is a separate page for Belitung. Bangka is a rather large island lying just off the southeast coast of Sumatra; it is about 250 km (150 mi) long and 50 km (30 mi) wide; it has a population of about 1.15 million. Pangkal Pinang, on the east coast, is the provincial capital and largest city of the island. 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 Q of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Teluk Klabat (Pulau Penyusu) Light, Bangka, June 2018 Google Maps drone view by M.farsyah Septa Hartawan |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Bintan and Lingga | East: Belitung | South: North West Java | West: Eastern Sumatra
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted April 13, 2006. Checked and revised March 27, 2024. Lighthouses: 38. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.