22 May 2019 | Author/Destination: Asia / Asien | Rubric: General
Reading Time: 14 minutes
Banjarmasin Floating Market © Muhammad Haris/cc-by-sa-4.0
Borneo is the third-
largest island in the world and the largest in
Asia. At the geographic centre of
Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of
Java, west of
Sulawesi, and east of
Sumatra. The
island is politically divided among three countries:
Malaysia and
Brunei in the north, and
Indonesia to the south. Approximately 73% of the island is Indonesian territory (
East,
South,
West,
North and
Central Kalimantan,
Kalimantan). In the north, the
East Malaysian states of
Sabah and
Sarawak make up about 26% of the island. Additionally, the Malaysian federal territory of
Labuan is situated on a small island just off the coast of Borneo. The sovereign state of
Brunei, located on the north coast, comprises about 1% of Borneo’s land area. A little more than half of the island is in the
Northern Hemisphere including Brunei and the Malaysian portion, while the Indonesian portion spans both the Northern and
Southern hemispheres. The largest Indonesian cities on Borneo are:
Samarinda,
Banjarmasin,
Balikpapan,
Pontianak,
Palangka Raya,
Banjarbaru,
Tarakan,
Singkawang, and
Bontang. Borneo is home to one of the oldest
rainforests in the world.
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