River · Indonesia
Barito
The Barito is one of the big rivers on the island of Borneo in Indonesia. It flows south from the Müller Mountains through Central and South Kalimantan and reaches the Java Sea below the city of Banjarmasin.
Picture credit: Jeannearoses (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Marwan Mohamad (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Marwan Mohamad (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Barito?
The river starts here: Müller Mountains, Central Kalimantan, Borneo.
It ends in the Java Sea, below Banjarmasin.
Countries on the river: Indonesia.
The story behind it
The Barito begins in the Müller Mountains in Central Kalimantan and flows south across Borneo. It is a wide river: on average 650 to 800 metres, and about 1 000 metres near its mouth. Large boats can travel about 700 kilometres upstream, and ocean-going ships sail as far as Banjarmasin. Very early each morning a floating market comes to life where the Kuin River meets the Barito in Banjarmasin. Women traders sit in small boats called jukung and sell vegetables, fruit and fish until about seven o'clock, when the market slowly empties. Below the long Barito Bridge lies Bakut Island, where visitors can watch proboscis monkeys. The Barito region also has a surprising link to Africa. The Ma'anyan language spoken here is a close relative of Malagasy, the language of Madagascar, because people from Borneo reached that island across the ocean long ago.
Questions children ask
How long is the Barito?
The Barito is about 909 km long. Depending on how it is measured, sources give between about 890 and 1 090 km.
What is the floating market on the Barito?
In Banjarmasin, traders meet in small boats called jukung very early in the morning and sell vegetables, fruit and fish right on the water. By about seven o'clock the market is over.
What links the Barito to Madagascar?
The Ma'anyan language from the Barito region is a close relative of Malagasy, the language of Madagascar. People from Borneo crossed the ocean to Madagascar long ago.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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