Gunung Sewu (Thousand mountains) is the name for the

karst Karst () is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and Dolomite (rock), dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground. Ther ...

region of southern central

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

that lies to the south east of

Yogyakarta Yogyakarta is the capital city of the Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by Hamengkubuwono, a monarchy, Yogyakarta is regarded as an importan ...

, south of

Surakarta Surakarta (Javanese script, Javanese: , Pegon script, Pegon: ), known colloquially as Solo (Javanese script, Javanese: ; ), is a major List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, city in Central Java, Indonesia. The city adjoins Karanganyar Reg ...

, and is considered a very dry and poor socio-economical region in Java. It has poor rainfall compared to the volcanic mountain areas to the north and east. Administratively most of the region is part of

Gunung Kidul Regency Gunůngkidůl () is a Regency (Indonesia), regency area located in the Special Province of the Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The administrative centre is the town of Wonosari. The name "Gunungkidul" comes from the Javanese language ''moun ...

, within the

province besides

Wonogiri Regency Wonogiri Regency is a regency () in the southeastern part of Central Java Central Java (, ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia, located in the middle of the island of Java. Its administrative capital is Semarang. It is border ...

and

Pacitan Regency Pacitan Regency (; ) is a List of regencies and cities of Indonesia, regency located in the southwestern corner of East Java Province, with Central Java Province on its western border. Located between 7.55° - 8.17°S and 110.55° - 111.25°E. The ...

. In 1993, the world speleologs proposed Sewu Mountains Karst Area as a world heritage. And on December 6, 2004 Sewu Mountains and South Gombong have been announced as eco-karst. It is a region where archaeological evidence shows very early human activity It is very popular with cavers. There are 119 caves below of about 40,000 karst cone hills in 13,000 square kilometer area. The only cave-adapted crab from Java, '' Sesarmoides jacobsoni'' (

Sesarmidae The Sesarmidae are a family of crabs, previously included in the Grapsidae by many authors. Several species, namely in '' Geosesarma'', '' Metopaulias'', and '' Sesarma'', are true terrestrial crabs. They do not need to return to the sea even fo ...

), is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

to the Gunung Sewu cave system.

Global Geopark Network UNESCO

On September 19, 2015 UNESCO announced Gunung Sewu area as Global Geopark Network follows

Mount Batur Mount Batur ''(Gunung Batur)'' is an active volcano located at the center of two concentric calderas northwest of Mount Agung on the island of Bali, Indonesia. The southeast side of the larger 10×13 km caldera contains a caldera lake. Both ...

area. Gunung Sewu area lays 85 kilometers in 3 provinces,

Province, Central Java Province and

East Java Province East Java (, , ) is a 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 and southern coasts, res ...

. The longest cave found at Gunung Sewu area is 25 kilometers Luweng Jaran and the deepest is 200 meters Luweng Ngepoh.

References

Java Karst {{Yogyakarta-geo-stub