Benteng Keraton Buton

A Coral Limestone Wall Of Some Two And A Half Kilometres Around The Hilltop Palace Of The Sultanate Of Buton, Often Cited As The Largest Fort In The World By Enclosed Area And People Still Live Inside It · Baubau, Southeast Sulawesi

A WALL OF CORAL LIMESTONE RUNS ROUGHLY TWO AND A HALF KILOMETRES AROUND THE TOP OF A HILL ABOVE BAUBAU, enclosing more than twenty hectares, and it is regularly cited as THE LARGEST FORT IN THE WORLD BY THE AREA IT ENCLOSES. What is inside is the surprise. THIS IS NOT A RUIN AND IT IS NOT A SITE - PEOPLE LIVE IN IT. Houses, lanes, a school, a mosque from 1712, the sultan's flagpole, goats, washing lines, and cannon still sitting on the bastions looking out over the strait. THE SULTANATE OF BUTON RAN ITS OWN AFFAIRS FOR CENTURIES AND DID SOMETHING UNUSUAL WITH THEM: it had a written constitution, the MURTABAT TUJUH, AND IT ELECTED ITS SULTANS rather than passing the throne down. The WOLIO language is still spoken and was written in its own Arabic-derived script. Almost no foreign visitor has heard of any of it. The walls are free and always open because it is a neighbourhood rather than a monument, the full circuit takes an hour and a half past cannon nobody has moved, and Baubau below is the ferry gateway to Wakatobi, which is how most pass straight through without going up the hill.

Benteng Keraton Buton, Baubau, Southeast Sulawesi, Baubau, Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia

BAUBAU IS REACHED BY FLIGHTS via Makassar or Kendari, and by the FERRIES that call here - Buton is a genuine hub and the PELNI ships stop on their way through. THE FORT IS OPEN AND FREE AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN, because it is a neighbourhood rather than a monument: you walk in past people's houses and out onto the bastions, and there is no gate and no ticket. A SMALL MUSEUM AND THE PALACE SITE inside keep daytime hours. THE MASJID AGUNG KERATON IS AN ACTIVE MOSQUE - modest dress, shoes off, and avoid Friday midday. LOCAL GUIDES are available at the main gate and are worth taking because nothing is labelled. BAUBAU IS THE GATEWAY TO WAKATOBI by ferry and fast boat. It is hot; go early.

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