Makassar Decoded in Sulawesi
Part of the Sulawesi travel guide — see every topic in All Sulawesi Guides.
Makassar is the largest city in eastern Indonesia and the gateway to Sulawesi, a port on the south-west coast that has been a trading centre for centuries. It was the capital of the Gowa sultanate, one of the great maritime powers of the region, until the Dutch took it in 1667 and built Fort Rotterdam over the older Gowa fortress. It is hot, busy, unpretty and worth a day: the fort, the seafront at sunset, an exceptional and famously robust food culture, and the boatyards where wooden pinisi schooners are still built.
Fort Rotterdam
The best-preserved Dutch fort in Indonesia, built over the Gowa sultanate's Fort Jum Pandang after the Dutch victory in 1667, with thick walls in the shape of a turtle and a set of restored colonial buildings inside. It houses the La Galigo Museum, named for the vast Bugis epic poem, which covers South Sulawesi's history, maritime culture and ethnography. The Javanese prince and resistance leader Diponegoro was held here in exile from 1830 until his death in 1855, and his cell is shown.
Losari and the seafront
Pantai Losari is Makassar's waterfront promenade, a long paved seafront facing west where the whole city comes at sunset — families, food carts, giant lettering for photographs, and the sun going down over the Makassar Strait behind the islands. It is not a beach; it is a promenade with a concrete edge, and it is one of the most enjoyable public spaces in Indonesia. The food carts sell pisang epe, flattened grilled banana with palm sugar sauce, which is the local sunset ritual.
The food
Makassar's cuisine is distinctive and heavy. Coto Makassar is a beef and offal soup with a broth thickened with ground peanuts and rice water, eaten with burasa rice cakes, traditionally for breakfast. Konro is beef rib soup in a dark spiced broth, and konro bakar is the grilled version with peanut sauce. Pallubasa is a related soup finished with a raw egg yolk. Sop saudara, and grilled fish at the Losari and Paotere seafood places, complete it. It is not delicate food and it is very good.
The boats and the islands
Paotere harbour, north of the centre, is where wooden Bugis and Makassarese cargo schooners tie up — the same pinisi type that trades across the archipelago, loading and unloading by hand. It is a working port and photographs extraordinarily. Off the coast, the Spermonde islands — Samalona, Kodingareng Keke, Kapoposang — are small sand cays reachable by boat for a day or an overnight, with snorkelling and beaches that Makassar itself entirely lacks. Bira, five hours south, is where the pinisi are actually built.
Makassar Decoded at a glance
| The fort | Fort Rotterdam, over the Gowa fortress, Dutch from 1667 |
|---|---|
| Held there | Prince Diponegoro, in exile from 1830 until 1855 |
| The set piece | Pantai Losari promenade at sunset |
| The dishes | Coto Makassar, konro, pallubasa — heavy and excellent |
| Working port | Paotere — wooden pinisi schooners loading by hand |
| Offshore | Spermonde islands — sand cays and snorkelling |