Samosir, or Samosir Island, is a large

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plat ...

island in Lake Toba, located in the north of the island of

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

. Administratively, Samosir Island is governed as six of the nine districts within

Samosir Regency Resort in Ambarita, Samosir Regency Batak Toba House in Simanindo, Samosir Regency Tomok Market, Samosir Regency Samosir Regency is a regency in North Sumatra. The regency covers an area of 1,444.25 square kilometres and it had a population o ...

. The lake and island were formed after the eruption of a

supervolcano A supervolcano is a volcano that has had an eruption with a Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of 8, the largest recorded value on the index. This means the volume of deposits for such an eruption is greater than 1,000 cubic kilometers (240 cubi ...

some 75,000 years ago. The island was originally a peninsula connected to the surrounding

caldera A caldera ( ) is a large cauldron-like hollow that forms shortly after the emptying of a magma chamber in a volcano eruption. When large volumes of magma are erupted over a short time, structural support for the rock above the magma chamber is ...

wall by a small

isthmus An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmus ...

, which was cut through by the in 1907 to aid navigation. At , Samosir is the largest island within an island, and the fifth largest

lake island A lake island is any landmass within a lake. It is a type of inland island. Lake islands may form a lake archipelago. Formation Lake islands may form in numerous ways. They may occur through a build-up of sedimentation as shoals, and beco ...

in the world.Island Superlatives
World Island Information, Accessed June 7, 2006 It also contains two smaller lakes, Lake Sidihoni and . Across the lake on the east from the island lies

Uluan Peninsula Uluan Peninsula extends into Lake Toba on the eastern side toward Medan, in Simalungun Regency and Toba Samosir Regency of North Sumatra province. It has experienced a large amount of uplift because of a series of massive volcanic eruptions that beg ...

. The island is linked to the mainland of Sumatra on its western part by a narrow

connecting the town of Pangururan on Samosir and Tele on mainland Sumatra. Tele consequently offers one of the best views of Lake Toba and Samosir Island. One of the most important objects on the island is a Lutheran church, and opposite it is a huge hill.

Tourism

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Een sarcofaag op Samosir Res

Samosir is a popular

tourist destination A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or an exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural ...

due to its exotic history and the vistas it offers. The tourist resorts are concentrated in the area. The island is the centre of the

Batak Batak is a collective term used to identify a number of closely related Austronesian ethnic groups predominantly found in North Sumatra, Indonesia, who speak Batak languages. The term is used to include the Karo, Pakpak, Simalungun, Tob ...

culture and many of the Toba Batak traditional houses (rumah adat) remain on the island. Most of the tourist accommodations are concentrated in the small town of Tuktuk, which is located a one-hour ferry ride across the lake from the town of

Parapat Parapat, also known as the City of Parapat, is a small town in North Sumatra province on the edge of Lake Toba, on the Uluan Peninsula where it forms the narrowest eastern link to Samosir Island. It is the primary transit point by ferry for vis ...

. The passenger ferry leaves from Tiga Raja harbor every hour between 8.30 and 19.00. For those running late there is an option to take the passenger boat from Aji bata to Tomok until 8.30 pm. A car ferry leaves the mainland from Ajibata and lands in the small town of Tomok, about a 10-minute drive from Tuktuk until 9 pm. There are also other passenger ferries and individual hotels may also have ferries available.

References

{{Authority control Batak Lake islands of Asia Islands of Sumatra Lake Toba