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 Riau Islands Province includes four groups of small islands located between Sumatra and Kalimantan (Borneo). Formerly considered to be a southern extension of the South China Sea, these waters are now known as the Natuna Sea. The Riau group is south of Singapore and off the east coast of Sumatra; the Lingga group is farther south, straddling the Equator in the Karimata Strait; the Anambas group is off the east coast of West Malaysia; and the Natuna group is also in the Natuna Sea northwest of Sarawak in East Malaysia. In all there are more than 3000 islands in the province. This page includes lighthouses of the northwestern part of the province including the Karimun regency and Batam city. Other pages for the province cover Bintan and Lingga and Anambas and Natuna. 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 F of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Takong Kecil Light, Singapore Strait, May 2020 photo copyright Capt. Theo Hinrichs; used by permission |
Karimun Regency (Western Riau Islands) Lighthouses
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![]() Iyu Kecil (The Brothers) Light, Singapore Strait, May 2020 photo copyright Capt. Theo Hinrichs; used by permission |
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Batam City (Central Riau Islands) Lighthouses
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![]() Helen Mar Reef Light, Singapore Strait, May 2020 photo copyright Capt. Theo Hinrichs; used by permission |
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![]() Karang Banteng (Buffalo Reef) Light, Singapore Strait, May 2020 photo copyright Capt. Theo Hinrichs; used by permission |
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Information available on lost lighthouses: Notable faux lighthouses: |
Adjoining pages: North: Singapore | East: Bintan and Lingga | South: Bangka | West: Eastern Sumatra
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Posted April 13, 2006. Checked and revised May 7, 2025. Lighthouses: 42. Site copyright 2025 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.