Sebesi is an Indonesian

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...

 island in the Sunda Strait

Sunda Strait

The Sunda Strait is the strait between the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. It connects the Java Sea to the Indian Ocean...

, between Java

Java

Java is an island of Indonesia. With a population of 135 million , it is the world's most populous island, and one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is home to 60% of Indonesia's population. The Indonesian capital city, Jakarta, is in west Java...

 and Sumatra

Sumatra

Sumatra is an island in western Indonesia, westernmost of the Sunda Islands. It is the largest island entirely in Indonesia , and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 with a population of 50,365,538...

. It rises to a height of (844 m) and lies about 12 km to the north of the Krakatoa

Krakatoa

Krakatoa is a volcanic island made of a'a lava in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia. The name is used for the island group, the main island , and the volcano as a whole. The island exploded in 1883, killing approximately 40,000 people, although some estimates...

 Islands and is the closest large island, about the same area and height as the remmant of Rakata

Rakata

Rakata is a collapsed stratovolcano of the Indonesian island of Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Sumatra and Java. Standing tall, it was the largest and southernmost of three volcanoes that formed the island Krakatoa and the only one not totally destroyed in the eruption of 1883...

. Like Krakatoa, it too is volcanic, although there are no dated eruptions known. (A single report of an eruption in 1680 seems to be a confusion with the Krakatoa eruption reported from that year.) Unlike the Krakatoas, Sebesi has permanent streams and is inhabited.

Sebesi was devastated during the 1883 volcanic eruption of Krakatoa

1883 eruption of Krakatoa

The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa began in May 1883 and culminated with the destruction of Krakatoa on 27 August 1883. Minor seismic activity continued to be reported until February 1884, though reports after October 1883 were later dismissed by Rogier Verbeek's investigation.-Early phase:In the years...

. Official records give approximately 3,000 people killed, with 1000 of these being 'non-residents'.

By 1890, Sebesi was being re-cleared. It is believed that since it lies closer to Sumatra, it has served as a 'stepping stone

Stepping stone

Stepping stone and similar can refer to:* Step-stone bridge, stones placed in a river to allow pedestrians to cross* Stepping stone , a type of computer security measure...

' for much of the flora

Flora

Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...

 and fauna

Fauna

Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...

 which was re-established at Krakatoa. By the 1920s, settlers had returned, and today Sebesi is virtually completely cultivated, with only a small area at the peak and some mangrove

Mangrove

Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...

swamps still natural.

5.945°S 105.489°E