Makassar

關於Makassar

Makassar, formerly Ujung Pandang, is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Medan, and Bandung. The city is located on the southwest coast of the island of Sulawesi, facing the Makassar Strait.

Throughout its history, Makassar has been an important trading port, hosting the center of the Gowa Sultanate and a Portuguese naval base before its conquest by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century. It remained an important port in the Dutch East Indies, serving Eastern Indonesian regions with Makassarese fishers going as far south as the Australian coast. For a brief period after the proclamation of Indonesian independence in 1946, Makassar was designated the capital of the State of East Indonesia, a Dutch puppet state; however, in 1950, only four years into its existence as an independent state, the Makassar Uprising took place, resulting in the country's integration into the Republic of Indonesia.

The city's area is 175.77 square kilometres (67.87 sq mi), and it had a population of approximately 1.485 million (737,239 males and 747,838 females) as of mid 2025 within Makassar City's fifteen administrative districts. Its official metropolitan area, known as Mamminasata, with the addition of thirty-three further districts of neighbouring regencies, covers an area of 2,666.63 square kilometres (1,029.59 sq mi) and had a population of around 2,795,639 according to the mid 2025 official estimates.

According to the National Development Planning Agency, Makassar is one of the four main cities of Indonesia, alongside Medan, Jakarta, and Surabaya.

According to Bank Indonesia, Makassar has the second-highest commercial property values in Indonesia, after Greater Jakarta.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.