Map - Samarinda

Samarinda is the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. The city lies on the banks of the Mahakam River with a land area of 718 km2. Samarinda ranks first on East Kalimantan Human Development Index and it is the most populous city on the entire Borneo island, with a population of 727,500 at the 2010 Census and 827,994 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as at mid 2021 was 831,460.

Samarinda is East Kalimantan's largest exporter and fifth-largest importer. The city has the highest number of bank headquarters in East Kalimantan.

In 2021, Samarinda Harbour became the busiest passenger port in East Kalimantan. The container port in Samarinda is also the busiest in East Kalimantan, handled more than in 2019.

Samarinda is known for its traditional food amplang, as well as the cloth sarung samarinda. By 2021, The city has 3 bridge connecting its river banks, Mahakam I Bridge, Mahakam II Bridge and Mahkota II Bridge. The city center is on one side and the other side is named Samarinda Seberang.

The name Samarinda originates from the description of the way in which the Bugis houses were constructed. At that time houses were customarily built on a raft and generally had the same height. This provided important social symbolism of equality between residents; no person's house, and thus no person, was seen as higher or lower than another. They named the settlement “Samarenda”, meaning “equally low”. After hundreds of years of use the pronunciation of the name changed slightly and the city became known as Samarinda.