The province is just South of the equator and is divided North from South by the Maoke Mts. The climate is tropical, with cooler temperatures in the highlands.
Heavy rains prevail during the monsoon.
The provincial capital is Jayapura, a port city in the northeast. Irian Jaya is a hot, humid island rising from the sea with some of the most impenetrable jungles in the world and yet also has snowcaps covering 5,000 meter-high mountain peaks, towering over glacier lakes. Irian Jaya is Indonesia s largest and easternmost province and covers the western half of the world s second largest island. It is a land of exceptional natural grandeur, with beautiful scenic beaches, immense stretches of marshlands, cool grassy meadows and powerful rivers carving gorges and tunnels through dark and dense primeval forests. The most heavily populated and cultivated parts of the island are the Paniai Lakes district and the Baliem Valley to the east.