INDONESIA

Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With a population of around 230 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.
The name Indonesia derives from the Latin Indus, meaning "India", and the Greek nesos, meaning "island". The name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia. In 1850, George Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms Indunesians — and, his preference, Malayunesians — for the inhabitants of the "Indian Archipelago or Malayan Archipelago". In the same publication, a student of Earl's, James Richardson Logan, used Indonesia as a synonym for Indian Archipelago. However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use Indonesia. Instead, they used the terms Malay Archipelago (Maleische Archipel); the Netherlands East Indies (Nederlandsch Oost Indië), popularly Indië; the East (de Oost); and even Insulinde.


Indonesian provinces and their capitals:

(Indonesian name in parentheses if different from English)
† indicates provinces with Special Status

Geographical Unit

* Province

Sumatra

* Aceh† (Nanggröe Aceh Darussalam) – Banda Aceh
* North Sumatra (Sumatera Utara) – Medan
* West Sumatra (Sumatera Barat) – Padang
* Riau – Pekanbaru
* Riau Islands (Kepulauan Riau) – Tanjung Pinang
* Jambi – Jambi (city)
* South Sumatra (Sumatera Selatan) – Palembang
* Bangka-Belitung (Kepulauan Bangka-Belitung) – Pangkal Pinang
* Bengkulu – Bengkulu (city)
* Lampung – Bandar Lampung

Java

* Jakarta† – Jakarta
* Banten – Serang
* West Java (Jawa Barat) – Bandung
* Central Java (Jawa Tengah) – Semarang
* Yogyakarta Special Region† – Yogyakarta (city)
* East Java (Jawa Timur) – Surabaya

Lesser Sunda Islands

* Bali – Denpasar
* West Nusa Tenggara (Nusa Tenggara Barat) – Mataram
* East Nusa Tenggara (Nusa Tenggara Timur) – Kupang

Kalimantan

* West Kalimantan (Kalimantan Barat) – Pontianak
* Central Kalimantan (Kalimantan Tengah) – Palangkaraya
* South Kalimantan (Kalimantan Selatan) – Banjarmasin
* East Kalimantan (Kalimantan Timur) – Samarinda

Sulawesi

* North Sulawesi (Sulawesi Utara) – Manado
* Gorontalo – Gorontalo (city) * Central Sulawesi (Sulawesi Tengah) – Palu * West Sulawesi (Sulawesi Barat) – Mamuju * South Sulawesi (Sulawesi Selatan) – Makassar * South East Sulawesi (Sulawesi Tenggara) – Kendari
Maluku Islands

* Maluku – Ambon
* North Maluku (Maluku Utara) – Ternate

West Papua

* West Papua† (Papua Barat) – Manokwari
* Papua† – Jayapura

Indonesia consists of 17,508 islands, about 6,000 of which are inhabited. These are scattered over both sides of the equator . The five largest islands are Java, Sumatra, Kalimantan (the Indonesian part of Borneo), New Guinea (shared with Papua New Guinea), and Sulawesi. Indonesia shares land borders with Malaysia on the islands of Borneo and Sebatik, Papua New Guinea on the island of New Guinea, and East Timor on the island of Timor. Indonesia also shares borders with Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines to the north and Australia to the south across narrow straits of water. The capital, Jakarta, is on Java and is the nation's largest city, followed by Surabaya, Bandung, Medan, and Semarang.

At 1,919,440 square kilometers (741,050 sq mi), Indonesia is the world's 16th-largest country in terms of land area. Its average population density is 134 people per square kilometer (347 per sq mi), 79th in the world, although Java, the world's most populous island, has a population density of 940 people per square kilometer (2,435 per sq mi). At 4,884 metres (16,020 ft), Puncak Jaya in Papua is Indonesia's highest peak, and Lake Toba in Sumatra its largest lake, with an area of 1,145 square kilometers (442 sq mi). The country's largest rivers are in Kalimantan, and include the Mahakam and Barito; such rivers are communication and transport links between the island's river settlements.

Indonesia's location on the edges of the Pacific, Eurasian, and Australian tectonic plates makes it the site of numerous volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. Indonesia has at least 150 active volcanoes, including Krakatoa and Tambora, both famous for their devastating eruptions in the 19th century. The eruption of the Toba supervolcano, approximately 70,000 years ago, was one of the largest eruptions ever, and a global catastrophe. Recent disasters due to seismic activity include the 2004 tsunami that killed an estimated 167,736 in northern Sumatra, and the Yogyakarta earthquake in 2006. However, volcanic ash is a major contributor to the high agricultural fertility that has historically sustained the high population densities of Java and Bali.

Lying along the equator, Indonesia has a tropical climate, with two distinct monsoonal wet and dry seasons. Average annual rainfall in the lowlands varies from 1,780–3,175 millimeters (70–125 in), and up to 6,100 millimeters (240 in) in mountainous regions. Mountainous areas—particularly in the west coast of Sumatra, West Java, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua—receive the highest rainfall. Humidity is generally high, averaging about 80%. Temperatures vary little throughout the year; the average daily temperature range of Jakarta is 26–30 °C (79–86 °F).

from wikipedia.org