Pontianak

Pontianak stands at the meeting of the Kapuas and Landak rivers in western Borneo, where waterways from the interior converge near the sea. Its founder Syarif Abdurrahman Alkadrie chose the site for a new settlement and trading center. In 1771 he and his followers cleared the forest at the river junction and built houses and a hall, laying the foundations of a Muslim sultanate.

Abdurrahman's experience as a traveler and merchant helped shape the new port. Its position gave access to the Kapuas basin and the settlements upstream, as well as to ships arriving from the coast. The rulers of Pontianak entered a political world of neighboring river kingdoms, negotiating and competing with their courts while commerce drew goods from the forests and river valleys of western Borneo.