Merapi Volcano Museum

Merapi Volcano Muesum :)

Indonesia is a country that located in the junction of the earth plate, so then Indonesia is known as an earthquake-prone country. In addition, Indonesia is also located in the ring of fire which has 500 volcanic mountains where there are 129 with an active status. That number includes 13 percent of the total active volcanoes in the world. Certainly reaffirmed that Indonesia is located in disaster prone areas. Therefore, required a mitigation effort to reduce the number of casualties when disaster struck.

Merapi Volcano Museum is a new tourist site at the southern slope of Merapi built to give solution to the above problem. This tourist object was designed as an ongoing conservation and education site as well as developing knowledge on volcanic disaster, earthquake, and other disasters. It was inaugurated on October 1, 2009 by the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Purnomo Yusgiantoro.

Museum which has the slogan “Merapi Jendela Bumi” (Merapi the Window of the World) occupies a land area of 3.4 hectares with a building area of 4470 square meters and consists of two floors. The first floor contains a museum objects collection that divided into rooms with themes: Volcano World, On The Merapi Volcano Trail, Manusia dan Gunung Api (mankind and volcano), Bencana Gempa Bumi dan Tsunami (earthquake and tsunami), Bencana Pergerakan Permukaan Tanah (landslide), Diorama, Peralatan Survey (survey equipment), Extra-terestrial Volcano, and other supporting facilities. While the second floor of a building used as a movie show about Mount Merapi, which is currently still under construction.

Cool temperature here welcomes you when you move from the parking area to the museum yard. If the weather is sunny, the summit of Merapi which covered by thick trees will be seen as a background of the Volcano Museum Building. Climb the stairs one by one in the court of the museum will remind you at the main gate of Ratu Boko Temple complex. It is no exaggeration, because the concept of Mount Merapi Museum building is closely related to philosophical values of Java. Architecture of the museum itself is a representation of the shape of the temple (the main entrance and courtyard), monument Jogja (rooftop), Mount Merapi (whole building), and the concept of keraton (palace) as the world image (centripetal building plan).

Entering the main door, you will be greeted by a big size mockup of Mount Merapi, then continued with emits smoke and magma. Additionally, there is the thundering sound coming out of it. If you want to know about the chronology of the Mount Merapi eruption, you can press the narration button near the mockup. Soon, you can hear the narrator voice accompanied by Javanese backsound telling the story of Merapi eruption. In addition, there are three buttons, each bearing the eruption on 1969, 1994, and 2006. If you squeeze one of these buttons, then the distribution of magma flow will change according to events that occurred in that year.

Moving on, you will enter a volcano world zone. In this zone there are various photos of the documentation and props about volcanoes phenomena that exist around the world. The photos and props are presented complete with captions in two languages, Indonesian and English. So, even if you come alone without a tour guide, it is guaranteed that you can fully understand the pictures.

After enjoying the volcano world zone, you can step forward to a special zone of Mount Merapi. All information about Mount Merapi is served in this room. Starting from the phenomenon of dome growth of Mount Merapi, the myths surrounding the Mount Merapi, Merapi view post from the Dutch era to the modern era, and much more. All presented in interesting drawings and interesting photographs. Not only that, in this zone also shown self-rescue technique from volcano eruption. Therefore, it seems quite reasonable and not excessive if the Mount Merapi Museum also serve as an educational site for mitigation in case of reducing the number of volcano casualties.

In one of the rooms in Merapi Volcano Museum, there is a collection of tools commonly used for volcano activities monitoring process. In addition, there are various kinds of rocks brought directly after eruption of Merapi, one of them is a stone bomb (bomb vulcanic) in the form of incandescent rocks over 65 mm in diameter. Other collections is: Damaged cookware residents affected by the eruption and a skeleton motorcycle owned by residents who died in the Kaliadem bunker on June 14, 2006.

Merapi volcano museum is designed to be the center of information, research, education and tourism on volcanoes all over the world in general and Mount  Merapi in particular. It is a worth-visiting site. Students from different level of education are suggested to visit this museum because there are many information presented complete with the visualization. Thus, the learning process about volcano will become more interesting and not boring.

A. Location

Merapi Volcano Museum is located in the southern slope of Mount Merapi, precisely located at Jalan Boyong, Dusun Banteng, Desa Hargobinangun, Kecamatan Pakem, Kabupaten Sleman, Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

B. Access

The access to Merapi Volcano  Museum is pretty easy since its location is on the same lane with Kaliurang tourism site. From Yogyakarta, you can follow Kaliurang Street. After approximately 20 km trip, turn left and follow the road to Kaliurang tourism site from the west entrance (Boyong Street). Soon, you will meet the entrance gate to Kaliurang. Turn right, Merapi Volcano  Museum is right at the end of the road.

Travellers who want to visit the Mount Merapi Museum are advised to bring personal vehicles both cars and motorcycles. This is due to the lack of public transport to this museum, so you have to walk about 2 km from the Kaliurang Street. However, if you insist on taking a public transportation, you can take Jogja-Kaliurang mikromini (minibus). Arriving in front of Oasis Crisis Center, get off and continue walking along Boyong Street.

C. Admission

The entrance ticket to Merapi Volcano  Museum is Rp 3.000. In addition, the parking charges is Rp 1.500 for motorcycle, Rp 2.000 for car and Rp 10.000 for bus (January 2010). The museum opens from Tuesday to Saturday from 9 am to 3.30 pm. It closes on Mondays.

D. Accommodation and Other Facilities

As a new tourist site at Kabupaten Sleman, Merapi Volcano Museum has incomplete yet adequate facilities for tourists. There are the rest room, parking area, and spacious yard. Currently, the management of Merapi Volcano  Museum is adding several other facilities for visitors, such as gazebo, cafetaria, and theater building. The area is also under construction toward an alternative integrated tourism site.

The absence of a cafetaria should not make you worry. There are food court run by local people approximately 100 meters from the museum. Do not forget to buy jadah tempe as a special gift from Kaliurang. Tourists who want to enjoy the night freeze at Merapi slope can stay in a hotel or an inn. If you have more time, continue your trip to Kaliurang, Ullen Sentalu  Museum, Tlaga Putri, Lava Tour Kaliadem or the agro-tourism around Turi and Pakem.

Merapi Volcano Museum