  sibolga (formerly sometimes siboga) is a city and a port located in the natural harbour of sibolga bay on the west coast of north sumatra province, in indonesia. it is located on the western side of north sumatra, facing the indian ocean and is a transit harbour to the nias island which was hard hit during the 2004 indian ocean earthquake. the city has an area of 10.77 km2 and had a population of 84,444 at the 2010 census. ==administration== the city is divided into four districts (kecamatan), tabulated below with their 2010 census population:biro pusat statistik, jakarta, 2011. {| class="sortable wikitable" |- ! name || populationcensus 2010 |- | sibolga utara (north sibolga)||align="right"|19,970 |- | sibolga kota (sibolga town)||align="right"|14,304 |- | sibolga selatan (south sibolga)||align="right"|30,082 |- | sibolga sambas ||align="right"|20,125 |} == history == poncan ketek island (small poncan island) in sibolga bay was once the location of a fort. british, dutch, french and american traders passed through here. it is thought stamford raffles passed through before he moved to bengkulu in south sumatra. from bengkulu raffles, after relinquishing the port to the dutch, established the trade port that became singapore. at some point between 1890-1920 there was a major fire in the city, which was presumably mostly built from wood from the surrounding mountains (shown partly denuded in the 1928 panorama). [[file:collec
Cities_in_Indonesia Ports_and_harbours_of_Indonesia Ports_and_harbours_of_the_Indian_Ocean Regency_capitals_of_Indonesia