5 Largest Islands in Indonesia with Area and Their Uniqueness – Indonesia is the largest archipelago in the world. The number of islands in Indonesia is estimated to reach 17,504 islands and of course, not all of them are inhabited. As the largest archipelago, the islands in Indonesia are crossed by the equator and the distance reaches one-eighth of the earth’s circumference!
From these thousands of islands, the Indonesian archipelago is then grouped into eight namely the Greater Sunda Islands of Sumatra or Sumatra, Java, as far south as Borneo or Kalimantan, Celebes or Sulawesi, the Lesser Sunda Islands or Nusa Tenggara, Bali, Maluku, and Papua.
In addition to the grouping of islands, Indonesia also has 5 largest whose five islands are included as the largest islands in Indonesia. Here is the explanation.
1. Papua
The largest island in Indonesia is Papua or also known as New Guinea or New Guinea with an area of 785,753 square kilometers. Apart from being the largest island in Indonesia, Papua is the second largest island in the world after Greenland. When viewed through a map, the island of Papua has a shape resembling a bird of paradise.
In Papua, the highest mountain in Indonesia, Puncak Jaya Wijaya with an altitude of 4,884 m, is located.
Papua has seven popular tourist attractions that offer natural beauty, the seven tours are Raja Ampat Islands, Baliem Valley, Lorentz National Park, Cenderawasih Bay National Park, Wasur National Park, Lake Sentani and Lake Paniai.
Papua also has special foods that attract tourists to dare to try, namely sea worms, papeda to sago worms.
2. Kalimantan
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and the second largest island in Indonesia. It is located at 1°00?N 114°00?E or north of Java Island and west of Sulawesi Island. The total area of the island of Borneo itself is 743,330 square kilometers.
Kalimantan Island has a nickname, the Island of a Thousand Rivers, because it has many rivers flowing in this archipelago. The island is surrounded by the East Natuna Sea in the west and north-west, the Sulu Sea in the north-east, the Makassar Strait and Sulawesi Sea in the east and the Strait and Java Island.
As an island that has the nickname of a thousand rivers, Kalimantan has the longest rivers, namely the Kapuas River with a length of 1143 km, the Barito River with a length of 880 km, the Mahakam River with a length of 980 km. Please note that the island of Borneo is divided from Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam.
The population of the island of Borneo itself is estimated at 22 million people, including people from Malaysia and Brunei. The Dayak, Banjar, Malay and Kadazan tribes are the tribes that occupy the island of Borneo.
3. Sumatra
Sumatra or Andalas has a total area of 473,481 square kilometers with a total population of around 57,940,351 million people in 2018. Sumatra is located at 0°00?N 102°00?E or located in the western part of the archipelago. It is located north of the Bay of Bengal, east of the Malacca Strait, south of the Sunda Strait, and west of the Indian Ocean.
As the third largest island, Sumatra is an island rich in agricultural products. The main crops of Sumatra are tobacco, petroleum, palm oil, bauxite, tin, coal and natural gas. The majority of the island’s population comes from the Minangkabau, Batak, Malay, Aceh, Rejang, Lampung and Gayo tribes.
4. Sulawesi
Sulawesi Island, also known as Celebes Island, is the fourth largest island in Indonesia. When viewed on a map, Sulawesi Island has an island shape that resembles the letter ‘K’. The total area of Sulawesi Island is estimated to reach around 174,600 square kilometers with a total population of approximately 20 million people.
The population of Sulawesi Island itself comes from various tribes, namely Toraja, Minahasa, Bugis, Buton, Mandar and Bajau.
The central part of Sulawesi Island is mountainous with rough land surface. So that each region in Sulawesi is basically far from each other and easier to reach by sea than by road.
5. Java
Java has a total area of 126,700 square km and is the center of industry and economy in Indonesia. Java is also the most populous island in Indonesia and even in the world.
Ranked as the fifth largest island in Indonesia, Java has a population of around 160 million people and more than half of Indonesia’s population resides in Java. The population density in Java reaches 1317 people per kilometer. The inhabitants of Java are Javanese, Betawi, Sundanese, Baduy, Madurese, Tengger and other tribes.
The name Java comes from Sanskrit which means island. The island also has a traditional script whose letters resemble Thai script and is called Hanacaraka. This traditional Javanese script is also related to the Balinese script and is used to write the Javanese language along with a number of other regional languages, such as Sasak and Sundanese.
