Top Indonesian Heritage Sites to Visit

Many people ask me what places in Indonesian worth to visit besides Bali and Rainforest in Kalimantan (Borneo). Indonesian as the largest archipelago in the world, has these national heritage sites accredited by Unesco, spreaded from east to west. From Sumatra to Papua, here are the seven best national heritage sites:

World Cultural Heritage Sites in Indonesia:

1. Borobudur Temple

Location: Magelang (around 40km northwest of Yogyakarta), Central Java

Brief description: Borobudur is the largest Buddhist temple with fabulous architecture and construction, Buddha statues and reliefs, built at 8^th-9^th century.

2. Sangiran Early Man Site

Location: Central Java, 15 km north of Surakarta (Surakarta is about 65km northeast of Yogyakarta)

Brief description: an archaeological excavation site where Pithecanthropus Erectus/ Home Erectus and Meganthropus Palaeo were discovered. The prehistorical fossils are to be seen in Sangiran Museum

3. Prambanan Temple Compounds

Location: Central Java, 18km east of Yogyakarta

Brief description: is the biggest Hinduist temple in Indonesia built in ca. 850 AD.

World Nature Heritage Sites in Indonesia:

4. Komodo National Park

Location: 1.5 hour by plane from Bali; between island Sumbawa and Flores.

Brief description: it includes 3 major islands namely Komodo, Rinca and Padar. It is the wild habitat of Komodo dragons, one of the oldest endangered species. There are approximately 1700 komodo dragons on the islan. The National Park also provides also marine beauty such as coral reefs and mangroves.

5. Ujung Kulon National Park

Location: southwest tip of Java. You can reach it by boat (5-6hours) from Labuan. Labuan is about 3-4hours from Jakarta.

Brief description: Ujung Kulon is Indonesia’s first national park with the largest lowland forest. It is also a home for endangered one-horned Javan Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros sondaicus) which are estimated only 50 species left.

6. Lorentz National Park

Location: Papua (also known as Irian Jaya)

Brief description: the largest protected area in Southeast Asia with around 2.5 million hectares. It is one of the ecologically richest natural parks in the world with. It is the only nature reserve in Asia which covers a complete range of different ecosystems spanning from marine, mangrove, swamp forest, lowland, mountain rainforest, alpine areas and glaciers.

7. Tropical Rainforest Heritage of Sumatra

Location: middle of Sumatra

Description: This site is a huge 2,5 million hectare area consists of three widely separated national parks named Gunung Leusur National Park, Kerinci Sablat National Park, Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park. It is famous for its outstanding beautiful scenery, great biodiversity in flora and sauna, and its habitat diversity. It is a home for the Sumatran well-known endangered orang utans, tigers, (smallest living) rhinoceros, and elephants.