Matano, Deepest Lake in Southeast Asia

Maybe you only know Toba lake because of legendary stories. But did you know that our country Indonesia also has the deepest lake in Southeast Asia that are on Earth of Sulawesi?


Its called Matano Lake. Geographically, Matano Lake is located in the district of East Luwu, South Sulawesi. Matano Lake precisely located on the outskirts of Soroako. To get to this place, entrants can use the access road and air. For overland from Makassar if using public transport such as bus transportation it will costs about 150 thousand Rupiah or about 15 USD, but if you use the air line from the city of Makassar it will costs about 1.2 million Rupiah or about 120 USD.

This lake has a broad reach 8218.21 ha and has a depth extent of 594 meters (1969 feet). According to National Geographic magazine, this lake including the deepest lake in Southeast Asia and the sixth in the world's deepest.

Unlike other lakes are typically formed from several tributaries, Matano Lake formed from thousands of springs so it will never suffer from drought. Matano lake water is very clear.

In Matano lake there are also many types of endemic fauna are still well preserved including shrimp, crabs, snails and fish. The unique fauna in the Matano Lake is mostly not found in another lake in Indonesia. In the lake there is an endemic fish species with brownish color, protruding eyes, the local people call the fish Buttini. There are also fish lai as carp, tilapia, and catfish cork.

Meanwhile, on the edge of Matano Lake in part is ravine, rock board, there are also some holes caves in which there are historical remnants such as spears, machetes and home appliances are made of brass metal, which is estimated to have existed for hundreds of years.

Interestingly, three of the six caves around Matano Lake is right on the edge of the lake, where the burrow cave, burrow flow-through from the rocks into the lake water. There is also the location is not so far away from residential areas, where the cave was inhabited bat, there are a lot of human bones and skulls. Local people called the Gua Tengkorak or "cave of skull".

Another interesting point of the Matano Lake are islands in it. In the southeastern coast, Otuno and Soluro precisely there are several islands like Nuha Langkai (Nuha meaning island, Langkai means big: Big Island) and Nuha Le (Island of Reeds).

On the northwest coast, near the plantation residents called bure, there are 4 other small island, called by some people as cats islands. Small islands that looked like a mini park on the water. Beautiful and charming. Clear lake water allows people to see the rows of beige and white coral in the water. Visitors who pass on these islands are usually interested to jumping for swimming or just playing around the island.