Jakarta
Tropical Anthill
Portrait
North Jakarta has subsided around two and a half metres in twenty-five years as groundwater is pumped from beneath it, and roughly forty per cent of the city is now below sea level — which is why Indonesia is building a new capital, Nusantara, in Borneo. The old Batavia quarter keeps Dutch warehouses and a canal, and the city's kaki lima street vendors feed it.
If you like this city