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. Maluku (the Moluccas) includes the islands traditionally known in the West as the "Spice Islands." Maluku lies east of Sulawesi (Celebes), south of the Philippines, and west of New Guinea. The Portuguese established a settlement in the islands at Ambon in 1526. They were replaced in 1609 by the Dutch, who established a second colonial settlement at Ternate. Today Ambon is the capital of Maluku province and Ternate was until recently the capital of North Maluku province. Indonesia is divided into 38 provinces (provinsi) and the provinces are subdivided into county units called regencies (kabupaten). North Maluku Province includes the large island of Halmahera and nearby islands, notably Morotai to the north, Bacan and Obi to the south, and the Sula Islands to the southwest. On the west the Maluku Sea separates Halmahera from Sulawesi (Celebes). To the northeast is the open Philippine Sea and on the southeast the Halmahera Sea separates Halmahera from Papua (New Guinea). On the south the narrow waters of the Seram Sea separate Halmahera from Seram (Ceram) and the other islands of Maluku Province. The population of the province is barely one million, a small population for Indonesia. The largest settlement, Ternate, is on a small island off the west coast of Halmahera. The provincial capital was moved in 2010 from Ternate to Sofifi on the west coast of Halmahera. This page includes the lighthouses of North Maluku Province except for those of the Sula Islands. Lighthouses of the Sula Islands are described on the Western Maluku 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. It's also worth knowing that the word for an island is nusa in Balinese and gili in the Sasak language spoken on Lombok and in western Sumbawa. 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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Halmahera West Side Lighthouses
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Halmahera North Side Lighthouses
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Halmahera East Side Lighthouses
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Halmahera South Side (South Halmahera Regency) Lighthouses
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Information available on lost lighthouses: Notable faux lighthouses: |
Adjoining pages: East: Northwestern Papua | South: Central Maluku | Southwest: Western Muluku | West: Northeastern Sulawesi
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Posted December 31, 2008. Checked and revised January 20, 2025. Lighthouses: 50. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.