Depok

Depok is a landlocked city in West Java province. It is located directly south of Jakarta, and it is the third largest urban center in the Greater Jakarta metropolitan area after Jakarta and Bekasi, covering an area of about 199.91 km2. Known as a center of education and commerce, the city had a population of 1,738,600 at the 2010 census and 2,056,400 at the 2020 census; the official estimate for mid 2024 was 2,163,635 (comprising 1,088,759 males and 1,074,876 females), resulting in a density of about 10,823 people per km2. Depok became an independent city on 20 April 1999, having previously been part of Bogor Regency. It is the second most populous suburban city in Indonesia after Bekasi, and among the ten most populous suburban cities in the world.

== History == There are two possible origins of the name 'Depok'. The first suggests that the region was already known as Depok when the land was purchased by Cornelis Chastelein, a senior official in the Dutch East India Company, on 18 May 1696. The purchased land measured about 12.44 km2, approximately 6.2% of the current area of Depok. Aside from establishing plantations with the help of the local inhabitants, Chastelein was also engaged in missionary work, introducing Christianity to the local population. He founded a local congregation named De Eerste Protestante Organisatie van Christenen (DEPOC), and in the 1950s, some members of the Depok community in the Netherlands claimed that this acronym influenced the modern name of the city. An alternative explanation is that the name derives from the Indonesian word padepokan (Hermitage), as the site had previously been used as a religious retreat.