Kota Sumenep, officially the Kota Sumenep District, was previously known as Fort of Samanap in English, is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

and

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

which serves as the

regency seat A regency seat () is a capital or seat of government of a regency in Indonesia. It is roughly equivalent of county seat in the United States or county town in the United Kingdom. Legally, regency seats are not administrative subdivisions of Ind ...

Sumenep Regency Sumenep is a regency of the East Java province, Indonesia. It has an area of 2,093.47 square kilometres (808.29 sq mi) and an population of 1,143,002 (comprising 552,127 males and 590,875 females) as at mid 2024.Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 28 ...

, in the

East Java East Java (, , ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the easternmost third of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean border its northern ...

province of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

. It is the second smallest and populated district in Sumenep Regency, with an area of 27.84 square kilometres (10.75 sq mi) and the population of 75,367 as of 2023.Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 28 February 2024, ''Kabupaten Sumenep Dalam Angka 2024'' (Katalog-BPS 1102001.3529) The administrative capital is Pamolokan. On 29 June 2004, part of the Kota Sumenep District was expanded into a separate district, namely Batuan District. This district is located 175 km east of

Surabaya Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Provinces of Indonesia, province and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern corner of Java island, on the Madura Strai ...

and 965 km east of

Jakarta Jakarta (; , Betawi language, Betawi: ''Jakartè''), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (; ''DKI Jakarta'') and formerly known as Batavia, Dutch East Indies, Batavia until 1949, is the capital and largest city of Indonesia and ...

. Geographically, Kota Sumenep is in the eastern coast of

Madura is an list of islands of Indonesia, Indonesian island off the northeastern coast of Java. The island comprises an area of approximately (administratively including various smaller islands to the east, southeast and north that are administratively ...

island. Infrastructure and settlements from Sumenep Regency are also concentrated in this district, which is the center of government and economy for regency at the far eastern end of the island of Madura. Hugely prosperous in the eighteenth century, it is now a quiet, peaceful backwater, with its past glory still in evidence.

Etymology

Kota Sumenep gained it is name from the combination of two words. The word ''Kota'' comes from Indonesian word ''kota'' which in turn comes from the

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

word कोट्ट () which means fort, fortress, castle, fortified house, fortification, works, city, town, or place encircled by walls. It is also used formally in a few other Indonesian towns (districts) and cities, for example; Kota Jantho, Kota Tambolaka, and Kota Waisai. It can also be used informally to refer to any towns (districts) or cities. Hence, a direct translation of the name ''Kota Sumenep'' into English would be "Town of Sumenep" or "Sumenep Town". While, the name ''Sumenep'' originated from the language of Old Javanese people from the words of ''Sungeneb'' () which means "the quiet valley", referring to most of the Kota Sumenep area which used to be land used by swamp deposits. Hence, Western writers often refer to Sumenep as Soemanap, Soemenap or Soemenep. In ''Bijdragen tot de kennis van de residentie Madoera'' (1858) published in ''Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië'', J. Hageman stated that since Tirtonegoro replaced Cokronegoro II in 1751, the word ''Sumenep'' was used officially as meaning "settled water" – (in Dutch).

Geography

Most of the Kota Sumenep District area is located in the lowlands, which around 46 percent is paddy fields, rivers and plantations, the remainder is in the form of residential land, offices or agencies, shops, industry and other urban infrastructure. It is bordered by the Manding District to the north, Gapura District with Kalianget District to the east, and the Batuan District to the south and west.

Climate

Kota Sumenep has a

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry "winter") and ''As'' (for a dry "summer"). The driest month has less than ...

(Aw) with May to November and heavy rainfall from December to April.

Government

Kota Sumenep is led by a head of district who is then assisted by a district secretary or secretariat in carrying out his duties. The current head of the Kota Sumenep District is Yudi Nursukmadyanto, who has served since 2024 and is assisted by a district secretary named Parman.

Administrative divisions

Administratively, the Kota Sumenep District area has 12 villages (''desa'') and 4 urban villages/wards (''kelurahan'') which are divided into 57 hamlets (''dusun'') or neighborhoods (''lingkungan''). The following is a list of names of the villages (''desa'' and ''kelurahan'') located in Kota Sumenep District: Note: (*) urban village/ward (''kelurahan'').
(**) administrative capital.

Notes

References

{{Authority control Populated places in East Java Madura Island