Places Of Interest
Tugu Khatulistiwa (Equator Monument)
tugu.gif (4737 bytes)equa.gif (5196 bytes)This monument shows that Pontianak City is passing by the equator, 0° latitude. This monument at first was built in 1928 by Astronomical Expedition Team from Dutch. In 1938, it was re-built with some improvement by Opzicter Silaban, an architect. In 1990 it was re-built again by duplicating it in a bigger size. The size was five times bigger than the original and it was meant to protect the original statue. The monument has four poles, a sketch of world with an arrow. It was accredited on September 21, 1991. Every March 21-23 and September 21-23, at midday, the sun passes over the equator line/the culmination; therefore, it makes the shadow of that monument and every other erected things around the statue disappeared (the monument and the other things are in the position of without shadow). This monument is located in Batulayang sub-district, North Pontianak District, the distance from the center of the town is more or less 5 km. It can be reached by land transportation such as by cars, or water transportation through Kapuas River such as by motorboats or speedboats. It is located about 3 km from Pontianak City.
Source: West Kalimantan Tourism Brochure, West Kalimantan Tourism Office
Pontianak – Indonesia
