Location South East Asia Highest elevation 358 m (1,175 ft) Province Maluku | Archipelago Maluku Islands Island group Maluku Islands | |
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Nusa Laut is the smallest inhabited island in the Lease Islands group east of Ambon, in Indonesia's Maluku province. It lies just off the south-western corner of Saparua island, separated from it by a deep channel. The island's coasts are fringed by a drying reef.
Map of Nusa Laut, Nusalaut, Central Maluku Regency, Maluku, Indonesia
Nusa Laut's 14,000 inhabitants live in seven villages - Leinitu, Sila, Nalahia and Ameth in the north of the island, and Titawaai, Abubu and Akoon in the south of the island. They speak the Nusa Laut language, as well as Indonesian and Ambonese Malay.
Nusa Laut has an all-Christian population and has been spared the 1999–2000 riots plaguing the rest of the region. Its villages retain lots of colonial style houses and churches, two of which compete for the title of being the oldest church in Maluku. There is also an old fort - the Dutch East India Company's Fort Beverwijk.
Visitors come to the island for its beaches and to dive off the reefs of Ameth - reputedly one of the best dive spots in the Lease Islands.