| 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 lighthouses on this page are in Indonesian Papua (western New Guinea). In 1828 the Dutch extended their claim to the western half of New Guinea, the world's second-largest island, but they established no major settlements until nearly 1900. When Indonesia became independent in 1949 Papua was excluded and remained under Dutch control. Following strong Indonesian effrots to claim control an agreement in 1962 provided for a transitional period under United Nations administration. In 1969 an asembly of elder leaders decided to join Indonesia. However an independence movement called the Free Papua Movement (OPM) continues and a varying degree of unrest has persisted to the preent day. This page describes lighthouses on the south coasts of Central Papua Province, West Papua Province, and the South Sorong Regency in Southwest Papua Province. These provinces are on the southern side of the narrow western neck of New Guinea, ending in the Bird's Head Peninsula at the northwestern corner of the island. Their coasts face south on the Arafura Sea and southwest on the Seram Sea. Lighthouses of the north coasts of Central Papua Province and West Papua Province are described on the Northwestern Papua page. The Sorong and Raja Ampat Islands pages have additional lighthouses of Southwest Papua Province. 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 Publications 111 and 112.
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Central Papua Province: Arafura Sea Lighthouses
West Papua Province : Seram Sea Lighthouses
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![]() Pulau Sarlota Light, Kaimana Regency, July 2012 ex-Panoramio photo copyright Untung Pamuji; permission requested |
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Southwest Papua Province: Seram Sea Lighthouses
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Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
Adjoining pages: Southeast: Southern Papua | South: Southeastern Maluku | Northwest: Sorong
Return to the Lighthouse Directory index | Ratings key
Posted December 31, 2008. Checked and revised March 29, 2026. Lighthouses: 27. Site copyright 2026 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.