Palu is a chartered city

City

A city is a relatively large and permanent settlement. Although there is no agreement on how a city is distinguished from a town within general English language meanings, many cities have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law.For example, in the U.S...

 (kota) on the Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

n island of Sulawesi

Sulawesi

Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands. In Indonesia, only Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua are larger in territory, and only Java and Sumatra have larger Indonesian populations.- Etymology :The Portuguese were the first to...

, located 1,650 km northeast of Jakarta

Jakarta

Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...

, at 0°54′S 119°50′E. It is the capital of the province

Provinces of Indonesia

The province is the highest tier of local government subnational entity in Indonesia. Each province has its own local government, headed by a governor, and has its own legislative body...

 of Central Sulawesi

Central Sulawesi

Central Sulawesi is a province of Indonesia located in the centre of Sulawesi. It was established on 13 April 1964....

. The city sits on the mouth of Palu River

Palu River

-References:...

, at the head of a long, narrow bay. Because of its sheltered position between mountain ridges, the climate is unusually dry. Palu has a population of 335,297, not including those living in nearby regencies.

History

The town was ruled by the colonial Dutch until Indonesia reached its independence following World War II. The residence of the Dutch controleur still exists as a testament of that era.

2005 earthquake

On 24 January 2005 at 04:10 (UTC+8

UTC+8

UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. In ISO 8601 the associated time would be written as .With an estimated population of 1.53 billion living within the time zone, roughly 22.5% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in world, as well as a possible...

), an earthquake

Earthquake

An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...

 with magnitude 6.2 Richter scale

Richter magnitude scale

The expression Richter magnitude scale refers to a number of ways to assign a single number to quantify the energy contained in an earthquake....

 occurred in the city. According to the local meteorological office, the hypocenter

Hypocenter

The hypocenter refers to the site of an earthquake or a nuclear explosion...

 of the earthquake was around 1.249° S, 119.922° E, some 16 km southeast of Palu at the depth of 30 km of Bora Village's hot spring, Biromaru sub-district, Donggala Regency

Donggala Regency

Donggala is a regency in Central Sulawesi province, Indonesia.The capital of Donggala is Banawa, located 34km north of Palu which is a 30-minute drive from Palu the capital of the province, with Habir Ponulele as the major of regency...

. Panic ensued as most people sought refuge in the highland

Highland (geography)

The term highland or upland is used to denote any mountainous region or elevated mountainous plateau. Generally speaking, the term upland tends to be used for ranges of hills, typically up to 500-600m, and highland for ranges of low mountains.The Scottish Highlands refers to the mountainous...

s for fear of a repeat disaster like the tsunami as occurred in Aceh

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...

. The earthquake killed one person, injured four others, and destroyed 177 buildings.

2005 market bombing

On 31 December 2005, a blast occurred in a market at a stall selling pork at around 07:35 (UTC +8) left eight people dead and 45 others injured. An improvised explosive device

Improvised explosive device

An improvised explosive device , also known as a roadside bomb, is a homemade bomb constructed and deployed in ways other than in conventional military action...

, described as a nail bomb

Nail bomb

The nail bomb is an anti-personnel explosive device packed with nails to increase its wounding ability. The nails act as shrapnel, leading almost certainly to greater loss of life and injury in inhabited areas than the explosives alone would. The nail bomb is also a type of flechette weapon...

 or similar, detonated around 7:00 a.m. within a butcher's market mostly frequented by Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 Minahasa

Minahasa

The Minahasa are an ethnic group located in the North Sulawesi province of Indonesia, formerly known as North Celebes...

 shopping for New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...

 celebrations, killing eight people and wounding a further 53.

Sister cities

Semarang

Semarang

- Economy :The western part of the city is home to many industrial parks and factories. The port of Semarang is located on the north coast and it is the main shipping port for the province of Central Java. Many small manufacturers are located in Semarang, producing goods such as textiles,...

, Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

 Tegucigalpa

Tegucigalpa

Tegucigalpa , and commonly referred as Tegus , is the capital of Honduras and seat of government of the Republic, along with its twin sister Comayagüela. Founded on September 29, 1578 by the Spanish, it became the country's capital on October 30, 1880 under President Marco Aurelio Soto...

, Honduras

Honduras

Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...

Indonesia Open Paragliding Championship

Indonesia Open Paragliding

Paragliding

Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure...

 Championship is one of the world championship series which it was the first Indonesia Open held in the region at 19 to 25 June 2011. 78 paragliders taking part in the championship come from Indonesia, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, Malaysia, the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

, Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

, South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

 and Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

will compete in Wayu village (the Matantimali hills, 800 masl) about 30 kilometers from Palu.

External links

Official site
Step! Magz, Palu Youth Movement Magazine