Pontianak, Equatorial City that name came from a ghost

Hello again steemit community, like my promise in the previous post I would share to you story about my city, Pontianak. Like I said many unique stories about my city, in this article I will share with you. Let’s check it out:

Pontianak city was founded on 23 October 1771. A unique story about my city, if you googling Pontianak in the image section you will find the scary image. Female ghost images that Indonesian call “Kuntilanak”. Kuntilanak very famous among Indonesia people like Valak in from Conjuring 2 movie, I think.

Pontianak name refers to Kuntilanak. Before our Sultan or King Syarif Abdurrahman Alkadrie build the city, it was a ghost nest. My question is why the Sultan choose the female ghost nest to build a city? Hard to find the answer but according to the legend, Sultan fire the cannon to pick the location of the palace.

Today, Pontianak city already be a developing city with 554,764 population. Don’t imagine that Pontianak is a ghost city with vacant building and ghost roam.

My city location precisely on the equator, it is widely known as Kota Khatulistiwa (Equatorial City). A monument named “Tugu Khatulistiwa" built to mark The Equator. The monument is one of the icons of Pontianak City and often visited by the tourists.
For tourists who have visited will be provided Charter Crossing the Equator (Certificate of Equator Crossing) as the mark has crossed the Equator in Pontianak.

The Equator that passes through the city of Pontianak is the only line of the Equator in the world are exactly splitting the earth horizontally into the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere. Then, standing at the point of zero degrees latitude contained in the monument would make the visitors proud.

Uniquely, the monument building is made from ironwood. Visitors may view the original monument building, see the documentation of the history building monument from the beginning until now so that visitors can have the basic knowledge of earth science and astronomy.

Important and wonderful events around the Equator Monument is the time of the culmination of the sun, which is a natural phenomenon when the sun is right in the line of cyclical Khatulistiwa that happen twice a year.

At that time the position of the sun will be directly above the head so as to eliminate all the shadows of objects on the surface of the earth. At the culmination of events, the shadow of the Equator monument will "disappear" a few seconds when exposed to sunlight. Likewise, the shadow of other objects around the monument. The cycle that occurred on March 21 to 23 is called the vernal equinox (first meeting point) as an early sign of spring, while the cycle that occurred on September 21 to 23 is called the autumnal equinox (the meeting point second) as a sign of the beginning of autumn.

Although only about 5-10 minutes, see direct objects that are around the monument does not have a shadow, raises special sensation that difficulty to describing. To celebrate the two moments, usually in the area of the monument held culmination Sun Festival which includes a variety of activities, such as traditional regional arts attractions, exhibitions of paintings, handicrafts, culinary and others.

That’s story about my city, there are many story about my city. I will write another story in my next post. How about your city? Is there any unique story about your city? Let me know by writing your story in command or a post. Happy to vote and share…