Merdeka Square is a large square located in the center of Jakarta, Indonesia. Merdeka is the Indonesian word for freedom or independence. Measuring approximately one square kilometer in area, if the surrounding fields within the Merdeka Square are included, it is considered one of the largest squares in the world. At 75 hectares, it is over five times the size of Tiananmen Square, and 12 times the size of Place de la Concorde.
A view of Merdeka Square with National Monument standing in the middle of the square.
Royal Dutch East Indies Army bomber planes fly over Batavia Koningsplein in the 1930s.
Sukarno speaking at the Rapat Akbar on 19 September 1945.
Plan of Merdeka Square in 1965
Jakarta, officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta and formerly known as Batavia until 1949, is the nation's capital city and the centre of the largest metropolis of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta is the largest metropole in Southeast Asia, and serves as the diplomatic capital of ASEAN. Jakarta is bordered by two provinces: West Java to the south and east; and Banten to the west. The Special Capital Region has a status equivalent to that of a province. Its coastline faces the Java Sea to the north, and it shares a maritime border with Lampung to the west. Jakarta's metropolitan area is ASEAN's second largest economy after Singapore.
Image: Jakarta CBD
Image: Busway in Bundaran HI
Image: Istana Merdeka
Image: Jakarta Indonesia National Museum 01
