Jambi, Provincial capital in southeastern Sumatra, Indonesia.
Jambi is a provincial capital in southeastern Sumatra, Indonesia. The streets follow both banks of the wide Batang Hari, which remains deep enough here to let larger vessels pass through for roughly 50 miles downstream toward the sea.
From the 7th century onward this area served as a center of the Buddhist Srivijaya empire, whose temples still stand upriver. In the 16th century an Islamic sultanate emerged here controlling the trade in pepper and rubber.
The settlement takes its name from the sultanate that formed along this stretch of river during the 16th century. Today you can still see Malay-style wooden houses lining the waterfront lanes where traders unload fresh fish from the Batang Hari each morning.
Sultan Thaha Airport sits roughly half an hour northwest and serves several Indonesian cities each day. Inside the town motorcycle taxis and small shared vans run along main routes and can be flagged down at most corners.
About 16 miles east lie the Muaro Jambi temple compounds, the largest Buddhist site in Southeast Asia outside Angkor. The brick ruins spread across several square miles of jungle and can be reached by boat from the river.
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