Banyuwangi (town)


Banyuwangi is the administrative capital of Banyuwangi Regency at the far eastern end of the island of Java, Indonesia. It had a population of 106,000 at the 2010 Census
The town is also known as city of festival as many festivals are held throughout the year. Banyuwangi regency is a tourist destination, and additional developments have been proposed to encourage international tourism by building necessary infrastructures.

Geography

Banyuwangi is built in the centre of the east coast of Java, with the backdrop of the Ijen Plateau to the west, and with fine views across the Bali Strait to the island of Bali lying to the east. The principal market area is along the Jalan Susuit Tuban, the street which links the town square with the sports stadium a half-kilometre to the southeast.

History

The city was the capital of the Kingdom of Blambangan, the sixteenth-century Hindu kingdom which ruled this eastern tip of Java. Although the rapidly expanding Muslim kingdom of Mataram attacked Blambangan during the early seventeenth century, it managed to survive as the last Hindu kingdom on the island, and it was mostly ignored by the Dutch until the eighteenth century, when they took it over.
Banyuwangi was where the undersea cable connected to Darwin, Australia where it met the Overland Telegraph Line in November 1871.

Transportation

at Blimbingsari serves the regency, Banyuwangi city and surrounding area in East Java.