Cikoneng Lighthouse – a piece of Anyer’s history

We are in Anyer, Indonesia.
Also spelled Anjer or Angier, is a coastal town in Banten, formerly West Java, about 100 km west of Jakarta.
A significant coastal town late 18th-century, it faces the Sunda Strait, between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra, connecting the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean.

The town was a considerable port in the 19th century, but was completely destroyed by an over 30-meter-high tsunami which was caused by eruption of volcano Krakatoa on 27th August 1883.
The present settlement still houses the Cikoneng Lighthouse, granted two years later from then King of Netherlands Willem III as a memorial for the townspeople killed by the eruption, as replacement of original lighthouse, that was built in 1806.
It was also the starting point of the Great Post Road, the historical road that runs across Java that connects Anyer and Panarukan, built during the reign of Herman Willem Daendels (1808–1811), governor-general of the Dutch East Indies, using unpaid forced labor that cost thousands of lives and ran around 1,000 kilometers.

Off the coast of Anyer is the island Pulau Sangiang, an uninhabited island with vast areas of untouched jungle, and the area is also known for coral formations swarming with tropical fish.
As of 2010, the lighthouse’s light distance can reach 20 nautical miles, enough to guide ships crossing west end of Sunda Strait.