Gili Ketapang Island is an island in North Sea Probolinggo (Pantura) of Java. As the pride of Probolinggo, this island has white sandy beach which is unpolluted and bluish. There are many kinds of colorful corals. The location is still in Probolinggo’s autorithy, virgin and has a beautiful scenery. Visitors can swim and dive to the deep sea.
Situated about 5 miles from Tanjung Tembaga, the port which has been by Probolinggo region. It takes approximately in 30 minutes by boat. This is not the large island because it just has about 68 ha in wide area, with population is about 10.000 people, where the most of them are maduranist and almost 90% consist of fisherman.
In Gili Ketapang island, you will find “Goa Kucing” (cat cave). According to the historical, this is the way of Syech Ishaq (the Islamic spiritualist who ever stay in this island). He spread the Islam religion from Gresik to Blambangan (Banyuwangi). At that time there are thousands of cats and also the cats that their heads are written by Arabic words. When he leave this island, the cats are gone everywhere. On “Legi Friday (The belief of ancient Java’s day)”, the sound of those cats is heard from the dark cave and it will lose when we are trying to run after it. Up to now, many people expect to get the goodness from “Goa Kucing”, expecially on “Legi Friday” night. This is the mysterious and belief of many people who live in Gili Ketapang island and around.
The other unique, the people believe that this island has a mysterious power who can move to middle of the sea. Because this is a coral island, it can be happened slowly. According to the people society, first, this island is being one location with Ketapang village, a village in Probolinggo land. This location is shore of Probolinggo sea, not real land but the coral stone. When Semeru Volcano exploded and the earthquake was happened, Ketapang village land was separated to middle of the sea about 5 miles from Probolinggo. Because of that, people call this island with “Gili Ketapang”. It’s comes from Madura language which means “flow” and “Ketapang” is the name of the village.
More Info: http://probolinggo.eastjava.com
