Palembang (Indonesian pronunciation: [paˈlɛmbaŋ]) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of South Sumatra. The city proper covers 400.61 square kilometres (154.68 square miles) of land on both banks of Musi River on the eastern lowland of southern Sumatra. It has an estimated population of 1,662,893 in mid 2019. Palembang is the second most populous city in Sumatra, after Medan, the ninth most populous city in Indonesia, and the nineteenth most populous city in Southeast Asia. The Palembang metropolitan area comprises parts of regencies surrounding the city such as Banyuasin, Ogan Ilir, and Ogan Komering Ilir, with a total estimated population of more than 3.5 million in 2015.Palembang is the one of the oldest cities in Southeast Asia. It was once the capital city of Srivijaya, a powerful Buddhist kingdom that ruled much of the western Indonesian Archipelago and controlled many maritime trade routes, including the Strait of Malacca. The earliest evidence of the city's existence dates from the 7th century; a Chinese monk, Yijing, wrote that he visited Srivijaya in the year 671 for 6 months. The first inscription in which Srivijaya was mentioned, Kedukan Bukit Inscription which was found in the city also dates from the 7th century. Palembang was incorporated into the Dutch East Indies in 1825 after the abolition of the Palembang Sultanate. It was chartered as a city on 1 April 1906.Palembang is the location of the Ampera Bridge. The snack, pempek, hails from the city. Palembang was the host city of the 2011 Southeast Asian Games and the 2018 Asian Games along with Jakarta. The first light rail system in Indonesia was operated in Palembang in July 2018. Despite these, Palembang is still not among the most favorite tourist destinations in Indonesia. The city is a major local tourist destination attracting a total of 2,011,417 tourists in 2017, however, it is not a well-known international tourist destination as foreign tourists only account for 9,850 out of the aforementioned total tourist arrivals. Traffic jams, floods, slums, pollution, and peatland fire are problems in Palembang.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/