Indonesian is a huge archipelagic country extending 5,120 kilometers from east to west and 1,760 kilometers from north to south. It encompasses 17,000 islands (some sources say as many as 18,000), only 6,000 of which are inhabited. There are five main islands (Sumatra, Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Irian Jaya), two major archipelagos (Nusa Tenggara and the Maluku Islands), and sixty smaller archipelagos. Three of the islands are shared with other nations; Kalimantan (known in the colonial period as Borneo, the world's third largest island) is shared with Malaysia and Brunei, Timor is shared with East Timor, and Irian Jaya shares the island of New Guinea with Papua New Guinea. Indonesia's total land area is 1,919,317 square kilometers. Included in Indonesia's total territory is another 93,000 square kilometers of inlands seas (straits, bays, and other bodies of water). The additional surrounding sea areas bring Indonesia's generally recognized territory (land and sea) to about 5 million square kilometers. The government, however, also claims an exclusive economic zone, which brings the total to about 7.9 million square kilometers.

Geographers have conventionally grouped island Sumatra, Java (and Madura), Kalimantan (formerly Borneo), and Sulawesi (formerly Celebes) in the Greater Sunda Islands. These islands, except for Sulawesi, lie on the Sunda Shelf--an extension of the Malay Peninsula and the Southeast Asian mainland. Far to the east is Irian Jaya (formerly Irian Barat or West New Guinea), which takes up the western half  of the world's second largest island--New Guinea--on the Sahul Shelf. Sea depths in the Sunda and Sahul shelves average 200 meters or less. Between these two shelves lie Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara (also known as the Lesser Sunda Islands), and the Maluku Islands (or the Moluccas), which form a second island group where the surrounding seas in some places reach 4,500 meters in depth. The term Outer Islands is used inconsistently by various writers but it is usually taken to mean those islands other than Java and Madura.

Tectonically, this region--especially Java--is highly unstable, and although the volcanic ash has resulted in fertile soils, it makes agricultural conditions unpredictable in some areas. The country has numerous mountains and some 400 volcanoes, of which approximately 100 are active. Between 1972 and 1991 alone, twentynine volcanic eruptions were recorded, mostly on Java. The most violent volcanic eruptions in modern times occurred in Indonesia. In 1815 a volcano at Gunung Tambora on the north coast of Sumbawa, Nusa Tenggara Barat Province, claimed 92,000 lives and created "the year without a summer" in various parts of the world. In 1883 Krakatau in the Sunda Strait, between Java and Sumatra, erupted and some 36,000 West Javans died from the resulting tidal wave. The sound of the explosion was reported as far away as Turkey and Japan. For almost a century following that eruption, Krakatau was quiet, until the late 1970s, when it erupted twice

Mountains ranging between 3,000 and 3,800 meters above sea level can be found on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, Sulawesi, and Seram. The country's tallest mountains are located in the Jayawijaya Mountains and the Sudirman Mountains in Irian Jaya. The highest peak, Puncak Jaya, also known as Mount Carstenz, which reaches 4,884 meters, is located in the Sudirman Mountains.

The Climate of Indonesia: is generally characterized by two seasons: wet and dry. The spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall is governed by monsoons. The wet season starts rather abruptly when the northwest monsoon reaches Indonesia. This occurs in late August in the northwest part of Indonesia and later (December) in the south-eastern part. The dry season starts more gradually, first in the south-eastern part of Indonesia, but later also in the north western sections of the country. The time of monsoon onset broadly determines the length of wet and dry seasons. The early onset and late withdrawal of the monsoon results in a lengthy wet season. Conversely, late onset and early withdrawal of monsoon entails a relatively short rainy season and a longer dry season. The approximate times of monsoon onset and withdrawal in various regions of Indonesia are shown in Table.

Area and boundaries

Area:
total: 1,919,440 km²
land: 1,826,440 km²
water: 93,000 km²

Land boundaries:
total: 2,830 km
border countries: Malaysia 1,782 km, Papua New Guinea 820 km, East Timor 228 km
Other nearby countries: India NW of Aceh, Australia, Singapore, Philippines, Brunei.

Coastline: 54,716 km

Maritime claims: measured from claimed archipelagic baselines
exclusive economic zone: 200 nautical miles (370 km)
territorial sea: 12 nautical miles (22 km)

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Indian Ocean 0 m
highest point: Puncak Jaya (also known as Mount Carstenz) 4 884 m

Resources and land use

Natural resources: petroleum, tin, natural gas, nickel, timber, bauxite, copper, fertile soils, coal, gold, silver

Land use:
arable land: 9.9%
permanent crops: 7.2%
other: 82.9% (1998 est.)

Irrigated land: 48,150 km² (1998 est.)

Andrea Müllner - Hack

Reinhard Müllner

for Photos and Films Contribution

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