Indonesia Archipelago

So many information we can find about Indonesia Archipelago from the internet. Sometimes like this : "Indonesia is often referred to as the world's largest archipelago, a name which aptly represents its 17,000 or so islands which span more than 5000 km (around 3,200 miles) eastward from Sabang in northern Sumatra to Merauke in Irian Jaya. If you superimpose a map of Indonesia over one of Europe, you will find that it stretches from Ireland to Iran; compared to the United States, it covers the area from California to Bermuda... " For more complete sentences you can find at http://www.indo.com/indonesia/archipelago.html.

Wikipedia noted that Indonesia has 18.000 islands or more (around 6.000 islands not populated). It can be debatable about how many islands in Indonesia. The exactly data is = X islands minus Sipadan and Ligitan (Now, Sipadan and Ligitan islands to be Malaysia's teritory).
The Indonesian archipelago has been an important trade region since at least the seventh century, when the Srivijaya Kingdom traded with China and India (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia).

These are another sites about Indonesia:
The Indonesia official website is http://www.indonesia.go.id/en/ (English) or http://www.indonesia.go.id (Bahasa ). The famous tilerature about Indonesia is Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia (English version) and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Indonesia (English) http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Indonesia (in Bahasa) or http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesia (Bahasa)