VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Sangkulirang Mangkalihat Karst is located in East Kalimantan, precisely in East Kutai Regency. Like the karst area, the Sangkulirang Mangkalihat location is also surrounded by steep walls, underground caves with exotic natural carvings, and green hills. The beauty of this giant karst group stretches from East Kutai Regency to Berau Regency. 

The Sangkulirang Mangkalihat area has an area of 1.8 million hectares. According to the results of research, this karst area provides information about traces of ancient humans which can be seen from hand paintings, pictures of boats, and paintings of various types of animals that are clearly depicted on the walls of the cave. It is said that traces of this ancient human existed around 10,000 years BC. Bones, crocks made of clay, and tools made of stone were also found here. It is also estimated that the spread of early Austronesian humans began in the Sangkulirang karst mountains. This means that the Sangkulirang Mangkalihat Karst is the starting point for the emergence of ancient humans in Indonesia. 

In this place there are valuable sites, such as for palaeontology, archaeology, fossil sites, geological-mineral structures, lithology, as well as a variety of endemic flora and fauna. The existence of caves, underwater rivers, limestone reserves and cement materials are quite abundant so they are very suitable as natural tourism spots. With these natural tourism spots, visitors can carry out activities such as hiking, rock climbing, cave exploring, flora and fauna exploration, or exploration of ancient human remains when visiting this tourist spot. 

East Kutai Regency can be reached for 4 – 5 hours by road from Samarinda City by four-wheeled vehicle. You can also rent a car at a rental place for around IDR 400,000 – IDR 500,000. After arriving in East Kutai Regency, the journey continues to Sangkulirang District. Even though this natural tourist attraction has been recognized by the world, this tourist destination is still considered very natural. There are only a few facilities provided, for example at the Tewet Post which was deliberately built as a resting place for visitors.