Equator Monumen of Pontianak

A month ago with friends, I  traveled to West Kalimantan Province. The capital city of West Kalimantan is  Pontianak. This city became famous because traversed by the equator and therefore there was built a monument to the Equator Monument where the monument was later to become one of the tourist attractions in Pontianak.

Historically, the construction of the monument's iconic city of Pontianak was started in 1928, along with an international expedition led by a Dutch geographers to determine the imaginary line of equator.

When first built, the building is still modest, namely in the form of a milestone marked with directional arrows. Only in 1938, architect Silaban renovate the monument and added a circle on the milestone.

Continues in 1990, the local government built a dome to protect the original monument. Then, on top of the dome is made duplicate monument with a size five times larger than the size of the original monument.

After a long time believed to be the location of the equator, it turns on the review in March 2005 the position of 0 degrees, 0 minutes, and 0 second is about 117 meters to the Kapuas River from the current location of the monument. Even so, this does not reduce the privileges Equator Monument.

The equator passing through the city of Pontianak is the only one of the world's equator divides the earth in exactly horizontally into the northern hemisphere and southern hemisphere.

Being in the location of this monument, you can see the building of the original monument and see the documentation of the history of its development. This can increase your knowledge of earth science and astronomy.

This monument was very crowded by tourists at the time the phenomenon of cyclical culmination of the sun twice a year, between March 21 to 23 and 21 to 23 September. To celebrate these two moments, usually held various activities, such as traditional arts attractions, exhibitions of paintings, etc.

The time is right to visit the Equator Monument is in the afternoon and evening. As evening approached, the location of the monument, you can enjoy the beauty of the Kapuas River with the lights twinkling expanse of the area opposite.

From Jakarta, the capital city of Indonesia take only about 1,5 hours flight to Pontianak.

The location of the Equator Monument, a distance of about 5 kilometers north of Pontianak city center can be reached by bus or public transportation. Visit to this place is free of charge but if you are interested to get a certificate you must pay rp 10,000 (± US$1).