Tsunami Museum: how Indonesia turned disaster into hope

ACEH/INDONESIA – 19 September 2017: After the Tsunami hit Banda Aceh city, on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, in 2004, which left a death toll of more than 280,000 civilians and over a million people homeless, according to World Health Organization, Aceh could make out hope from the disaster.

Indonesia started to establish Aceh Tsunami Museum in 2005 as a reminder of the tsunami victims. In 2009, the museum opened its doors to visitors from across the world.

The tour inside the museum starts with a narrow, long and gloomy corridor, with loudspeakers producing the sound of sea waves. Reaching the end of the corridor, the visitor would be in a wide hall with big screens, showing photographs of the tragedy, with a simple scientific explanation of the disaster.


3D model of a boat that rescued the “Basayariyah” family – Egypt Today

Passing through the next dark corridor, the visitor steps on the floor of a wide and oval-shaped hall, where he can read the names of all the victims of the disaster.


Names of the victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami 2004 – Egypt Today

A visitor would then walk across a bridge that ascends, expressing new life after the disaster, till he ends up at a bright hall that contains flags of all the nations, including Egypt, which sent Indonesia aid and food, in order for Banda Aceh to overcome the aftermath.


The flags of nations that sent Aceh aids hanging from the ceiling – Egypt Today

The museum not only represents a memorial to victims, it also serves as a huge defensive shelter against further possible Tsunami attacks, in addition to a heliport for rescue helicopters, and an alert system, that would work half an hour before an earthquake.


A helicopter fuselage on the museum’s heliport for rescue helicopters – Egypt Today

On December 26, 2004, Indian Ocean Earthquake, measuring 9 on the Richter scale, according to the WHO, struck Sumatra island, followed by a disastrous tsunami wave, that released 23,000 more energy than that released by the atomic bomb that destroyed Nagasaki, Japan.


Banda Aceh city before the disaster - landscape model in the museum – Egypt Today


Banda Aceh city after the disaster - landscape model in the museum – Egypt Today