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). Maluku Province includes the central and southern islands of Maluku (the Moluccas), the islands traditionally known in the West as the "Spice Islands." Broadly speaking, the Moluccas lie east of Sulawesi (Celebes), south of the Philippines, and west of New Guinea. This page includes the lighthouses of southern Maluku Province in the Southwest Maluku and Tanimbar Islands Regencies.The islands covered by this page lie at the extreme eastern end of the Lesser Sunda Islands, separating the Banda Sea to the northwest from the Arafura Sea to the southeast. 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 volume Q of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Pulau Lakor Light, Letti Islands, November 2012 ex-Panoramio photo copyright Darell Tristan Utanmeru used by permission |
Maluku Barat Daya (Southwest Maluku) Regency Lighthouses
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Kepulauan Tanimbar (Tanimbar Islands) Regency Lighthouses
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![]() Tanjung Arousu Light, Pulau Selaru, Tanimbar Islands photo copyright Candra Lisnawan; used by permission |
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: North: Central Maluku | Northeast: Southeastern Maluku | South: Timor Leste | Southwest: Northeastern Sundas
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted December 31, 2008. Checked and revised October 21, 2023. Lighthouses: 40. Site copyright 2023 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.