The Solor Archipelago is a group of islands in the Lesser Sunda Islands

Lesser Sunda Islands

The Lesser Sunda Islands or Nusa Tenggara are a group of islands in the southern Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up the Sunda Islands...

, 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...

, lying to the east of Flores

Flores

Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, an island arc with an estimated area of 14,300 km² extending east from the Java island of Indonesia. The population was 1.831.000 in the 2010 census and the largest town is Maumere. Flores is Portuguese for "flowers".Flores is located east of Sumbawa...

 and to the west of the Alor Strait

Alor Strait

Alor Strait . divides the Solor Archipelago from the Alor Archipelago, in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia. It lies mainly between the larger islands of Pantar and Lembata....

 and the Alor Archipelago

Alor Archipelago

The Alor Archipelago is located at the easternmost end of the Lesser Sunda Islands.Alor is the largest island in the archipelago which is located at its eastern end. Other islands in the archipelago include Pantar, Kepa, Buaya, Ternate , Pura and Tereweng...

. To the north is the west part of the Banda Sea

Banda Sea

The Banda Sea is a sea in the Maluku Islands of Indonesia, technically part of the Pacific Ocean but separated from it by hundreds of islands, as well as the Halmahera and Ceram Seas...

, while to the south across the Savu Sea

Savu Sea

The Savu Sea is a small sea within Indonesia named for the island of Savu on its southern boundary. It is bounded by Savu and Rai Jua to the south, the islands of Rote and Timor to the east, Flores and the Alor archipelago to the north/northwest, and the island of Sumba to the west/northwest...

 lies the island of Timor

Timor

Timor is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, north of the Timor Sea. It is divided between the independent state of East Timor, and West Timor, belonging to the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. The island's surface is 30,777 square kilometres...

. The largest islands are, from west to east, Solor

Solor

Solor is a volcanic island located off the eastern tip of Flores island in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, in the Solor Archipelago. The island supports a small population that has been whaling for hundreds of years. They speak the languages of Adonara and Lamaholot. There are at least five...

, Adonara

Adonara

Adonara is an island in the Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia, located east of the larger island of Flores in the Solor Archipelago. To the east lies Lembata, formerly known as Lomblen. It is the highest of the islands of the archipelago, reaching an altitude of 1,659 metres, and it has an area of...

, and Lembata

Lembata

Lembata is an island in the Lesser Sunda Islands, formerly known as Lomblen island, is the largest island of the Solor Archipelago, in the Lesser Sunda Islands, Indonesia. It forms part of the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur. The length of the island is about 80 km from the Southwest to the...

 (formerly known as Lomblen), although there are many small islands as well.

Administratively, the Solor Archipelago forms its own regency (kabupaten), the Lembata Regency

Lembata Regency

Lembata Regency is a regency in East Nusa Tenggara province of Indonesia. Established in 1999, the regency covers the islands of Solor, Adonara, and Lembata , together with many smaller islands together forming the Solor Archipelago, and has its administrative seat in Lewoleba. The population of...

, within 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 East Nusa Tenggara

East Nusa Tenggara

East Nusa Tenggara is a province of Indonesia, located in the eastern portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, including West Timor. The provincial capital is Kupang, located on West Timor...

. It has an area of 473.5 sq mi (1,226.38 km2) and a population of 106,312 (2008 estimate).

In addition to the national language of Indonesian

Indonesian language

Indonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....

, the population also speak Lamaholot

Lamaholot

The Lamahalot are a traditional tribe located on Flores Island, Indonesia, and some smaller islands around it . Lamaholot people speak the Lamaholot language with different dialects, the number of speakers counts between 150,000 and 200,000...

 as a lingua franca

Lingua franca

A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...

. There are also many local languages, for example Adonara which is spoken on Adonara and Solor.