Gorontalo

Gorontalo (Gorontaloan: Hulontalo) is a province of Indonesia on the island of Sulawesi. Located on the Minahasa Peninsula, Gorontalo was formerly part of the province of North Sulawesi until its inauguration as a separate province on 5 December 2000. The province is bordered by the provinces of North Sulawesi to the east and Central Sulawesi to the west, as well sharing a maritime border with the Philippines in the Sulawesi Sea to the north, and a coastline on the Gulf of Tomini to the south. The provincial capital, as well as the main gateway to the province and its most populated city, is Gorontalo (also often called Hulontalo). The size is comparable to Vanuatu.

The province covers a total land area of 12,025.15 square kilometres (4,642.94 sq mi) and had a population of 1,040,164 at the 2010 Census, and 1,171,681 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 1,213,180 (comprising 611,780 males and 601,400 females), resulting in a population density of 100.887 inhabitants per square kilometre (261.30/sq mi).

The province is known by the nicknames "Porch of Medina" (Indonesian: Bumi Serambi Madinah), an allusion to the cradle of Islamic civilisation used because the pre-colonial kingdoms of Gorontalo applied Islamic law as a basis for implementing the law, in the fields of government, society and the courts, and "Karawo Province" for the local karawo embroidery. The only Indonesian President to hail from the Gorontalo people was the third President of the Republic of Indonesia, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie. His father, Alwi Abdul Jalil Habibie, came from the Habibie clan.