The earliest record of
Jakarta as a coastal settlement and port can be traced to the
Indianized kingdom of
Tarumanagara as early as the fourth century. In AD 39, King
Purnawarman established Sunda Pura as the kingdom's new capital city, located on the northern coast of Java. Purnawarman left seven memorial stones with inscriptions bearing his name spread across the area, including the present-day
Banten and
West Java provinces. The Tugu Inscription is considered the oldest of all of them. After Tarumanagara's power declined, all of its territories, including Sunda Pura, became part of the
Kingdom of Sunda. The harbour area was renamed Sunda Kelapa, as written in a
Hindu monk's lontar manuscripts, which are now located at the
Bodleian Library of
Oxford University in England, and travel records by Prince Bujangga Manik. By the 14th century,
Sunda Kelapa became a major trading port for the kingdom. The first European fleet, four
Portuguese ships from
Malacca, arrived in 1513 when the Portuguese sought a route for
spices, especially
black pepper. A new harbour was needed for the
Dutch East Indies to replace the
Sunda Kelapa harbour to the west, which was too small for the increased traffic resulting from the opening of the
Suez Canal. Construction on the Port of Tanjung Priok began in 1877, along with
Tanjung Priuk railway station and other supporting facilities. The construction of the new harbour was started by
Governor General Johan Wilhelm van Lansberge (1875-1881). The new harbour was named Tandjong Priok. Several facilities were built to support the function of the new harbour, such as the
Tanjung Priuk Station (1914). The port is part of the Maritime
Silk Road, which runs from the Chinese coast via the
Suez Canal to the Mediterranean and then to the Upper Adriatic region of
Trieste, where there are further rail connections to
Central and
Eastern Europe. ==JICT==