Jakarta

Capital of Indonesia on the northwest coast of Java, at the estuary of the River Liwung on Jakarta Bay, designated a special metropolitan district in 1966 with the status of a province; population (2000 est) 8,389,400. Jakarta forms the leading commercial and industrial zone of Indonesia, and industries include textiles, chemicals, plastics, and shipbuilding; a canal links it with its port of Tanjung Priok where timber, rubber, oil, tin, coffee, tea, and palm oil are among its exports. It is also a tourist centre.

The development of Jakarta as a centre of trade began with the arrival of Hindus and Buddhists from India in the 5th century. The Dutch invaded in 1619, and as Batavia made it the capital of the Dutch East Indies.

Jakarta is the leading centre of Indonesian culture, and institutions include the Museum of Indonesian Culture (1778), which includes collections of both ancient and modern works of art, and the Taman Ismail Mazurki arts centre, which concentrates on the performing arts. There are 11 universities founded in the period 1950-60, including the University of Indonesia. There are many mosques in the city, including Luar Batang (1739) and the Istiqlal Mosque, built in the 1960s and one of the largest in the world. Much of the city lies on a naturally swampy alluvial plain, and suffers from a number of environmental problems, such as flooding during the rainy seasons, a shortage of clean drinking water, and atmospheric pollution.