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. Borneo, known as Kalimantan in Indonesia, is the world's third largest island. 73% of the island is Indonesian; the remaining portion includes the Malaysian states of Sarawak and Sabah and the independent sultanate of Brunei. Indonesian Kalimantan is separated from Sulawesi (Celebes) to the east by the Makassar Strait, from Java to the south by the Java Sea, and from Sumatra to the southwest by the Karimata Strait and Natuna Sea. Indonesia is divided into 38 provinces (provinsi) and the provinces are subdivided into county units called regencies (kabupaten). This page describes lighthouses of eastern Kalimantan in Kutai Timur (East Kutai) Regency and Bontang City in East Kalimantan Province. Lighthouses of Berau Regency in the north of the province are included on the Northeastern Kalimantan page and lighthouses in the south of the province around Balikpapan are on the Southeastern Kalimantan page. The coast covered by this page faces Sulawesi (Celebes) across the broad Makassar Strait, a passage 130 to 370 km (80 to 250 mi) wide. 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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![]() Pulau Beras Basah Light, Makassar Strait, September 2012 photo copyright kedaihijau; permission requested |
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![]() Bontang Range Lights 3A (left) and 3B photo by Arief Riefsa |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Northeastern Kalimantan | Northeast: Northern Sulawesi | East: Western Sulawesi | South: Southeastern Kalimantan
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Posted December 9, 2008. Checked and revised May 8, 2024. Lighthouses: 33. Site copyright 2024 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.