Geography of Bali: mountains, straits, beaches, topography

Among the 17,500 islands in the Indonesian archipelago, Bali is one of the 33 provinces of the Republic of Indonesia.

It is the largest archipelago country in the world, consisting of 2,000,000 km2 of land with a chain of islands stretching over 500,000 km from Sumatra to Papua and covering a territorial water area of more than 5,000,000 km2.

Located between Java and Lombok, Bali is located 8-9 degrees south of the equator with the Java Sea to the north and the Indian Ocean to the south.

Bali covers an area of 5636 km2, or 0.29% of Indonesian territory, with a north-south axis of only 90 km, and from west to east less than 140 km.

The North Sea of Bali, divided into three areas, is about 3168 km2, the east is about 3,350 km2 and the west is about 2982 km2.

The Bali Sea covers an area of 9500 km2. The North Bali Sea runs along the Buleleng coastline, the East Bali Sea runs along the Karangasem coastline.

Klungkung and Janyar and the West Sea of Bali include the Badung Tabanan and Jembrana coastlines.

Bali is located 3.2 km east of Java and about 8 degrees south of the equator. Bali and Java are separated by the Bali Strait.

From east to west, the island is approximately 153 km (95 mi) wide and extends approximately 112 km (70 mi) from north to south. Administratively, it covers 5,780 km2 (2,230 sq. mi), or 5,577 km2 (2,153 sq. mi) excluding the Nusa Penida area.

Its population density is approximately 750 people/km2 (1,900 people/sq mi).

Bali's central mountains include several peaks over 2,000 meters (6,600 ft) and active volcanoes such as Mount Batur.

The highest Mount Agung (3031 m, 9944 ft), known as the "mother mountain", is an active volcano that is considered one of the most likely places in the world to erupt within the next 100 years.

Since the end of 2017, Mount Agung began to erupt, and a large number of people were evacuated, the airport in Bali was closed. The severity of the eruption as of November 2017 is impossible to predict.

Mountains stretch from the center to the east side, with Mount Agung being the easternmost peak.

Bali's volcanic nature has contributed to its exceptional fertility, and its high mountain ranges provide abundant rainfall that supports a highly productive agricultural sector.

South of the mountains is a wide, sloping area where most of Bali's rice crop is grown.

The northern side of the mountains slopes more steeply towards the sea and is the island's main coffee-producing area, along with rice, vegetables, and livestock.

The island is surrounded by coral reefs. Beaches in the south tend to have white sand, while those in the north and west tend to have black sand.

There are no major waterways in Bali, although small sampan boats operate on the Ho River.

The sandy beaches between Pasut and Klatingdukukh are being developed for tourism, but other than the seaside temple of Tanah Lot, they are not yet being used on a significant scale.

The largest city is the provincial capital, Denpasar, near the south coast. The population is about 491,500 (2002).

Bali's second largest city is the old colonial capital of Singaraja, located on the north coast and home to about 100,000 people.

Other important cities include the beach resort of Kuta, which is practically part of the urban area of Denpasar, and Ubud, located in the north of Denpasar, the cultural center of the island.

Three small islands lie directly to the southeast, all of which are administratively part of the Klungkung regency in Bali: Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan and Nusa Cheningan. These islands are separated from Bali by the Badung Strait.

To the east, the Lombok Strait separates Bali from Lombok and marks the biogeographic divide between the fauna of the Indomalayan ecozone and the distinctly different fauna of Australasia.

The transition is known as the "Wallace Line", named after Alfred Russel Wallace, who first proposed a transition zone between these two major biomes.

When sea levels dropped during the Pleistocene Ice Age, Bali was connected to Java and Sumatra and to the Asian mainland and shared the Asian fauna.

But the deep waters of the Lombok Strait continued to hold the island of Lombok and the Little Sund archipelago.