Kali Besar
| Kali Besar, Jakarta | |
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Oil painting depicting the Castle of Batavia seen from Kali Besar West with the foreground fish market
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Coordinates: 6°07′52.9″S 106°48′38.1″E / 6.131361°S 106.810583°ECoordinates: 6°07′52.9″S 106°48′38.1″E / 6.131361°S 106.810583°E
 Kali Besar
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| Country |
 Indonesia
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| Province | DKI Jakarta |
| City | North Jakarta |
| District | Tambora |
Kali Besar (de Groote Rivier) refers to the channel connecting Sunda Kelapa in the north to the south part in old town of Jakarta, parallel to Ciliwung River in their east disemboguing at the heart of the old city of Jakarta. Literally meaning Grand River, this channel is now part of Kali Krukut (Krukut river) in Tambora subdistrict.
The Kali Besar bend was once straightened out on the orders of Jacques Specx in 1631-1632. In the early days of Batavia in 17th century, ships usually sailed along a Kanaal to Kali Besar, where unloading and ship repairs were also done in dockyard in front of the long Kasteel but due to deposition of sand in the estuary and the size of the ships were getting bigger they could no longer pass the channel. The boats were then pulled by horses and slaves. For larger ships, passengers and cargoes were unloaded into small boats or barges.
There used to be various buildings along the Kali Besar in the VOC era, such as warehouses, private settlements, churches and markets. Some of the existing markets in the Kali Besar include Vegetable Market, Banana Market, Chicken Market and Rice Market. Many of the buildings located along Kali Besar Barat street and Kali Besar Timur street are in European architecture and are built in the 19th century, including old buildings, offices and warehouses. The existence of these buildings form a historic neighborhood that becomes a tourism attraction, especially for recreational tourists who want to enjoy the atmosphere of "Old Town".
Kali Besar was the center of economy and trading of VOC where there were buildings for the manufacture and repair of ships as well as for the laborers or slaves to work. Kali Besar was seen as an elite residential area in the early 18th century and later transformed to become the central area of offices for international trading. One example is The Red Store building. Many houses of Chinese immigrants were built here but then burned during the 1740 Batavia pogrom.
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Wikipedia