The History of Sumatra

This is an adventure book. Sumatra (Indonesian: Sumatera) is an island in western Indonesia and part of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island that is entirely in Indonesia (two larger islands, Borneo and New Guinea, are shared between Indonesia and other countries) and the sixth largest island in the world at 480,847.74 km2 (including adjacent islands such as the Riau Islands and Bangga Belitung Islands), with a current population of over 50 million (54 million administratively, as Riau Islands and Bangka–Belitung Islands are included). Its biggest city is Medan which has over 4,300,000 people in its metropolitan area. Sumatra is an elongated landmass spanning a diagonal northwest-southeast axis. The Indian Ocean borders the west, northwest, and southwest sides of Sumatra with the island chain of Simeulue, Nias and Mentawai bordering the southwestern coast. On the northeast side the narrow Strait of Malacca separates the island from the Malay Peninsula, an extension of the Eurasian continent. On the southeast the narrow Sunda Strait separates Sumatra from Java.