Papua

Papua

1. Territory of. a former territory of Australia, consisting of SE New Guinea and adjacent islands: now part of Papua New Guinea

2. the W part of the island of New Guinea: formerly under Dutch rule, becoming a province of Indonesia in 1963. Capital: Jayapura. Pop.: 2 220 934 (2000). Area: 416 990 sq. km (161 000 sq. miles)

3. Gulf of. an inlet of the Coral Sea in the SE coast of New Guinea

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Papua

 

a gulf of the Coral Sea off the southeastern coast of New Guinea. It is 150 km long, and it measures approximately 330 km wide at the entrance, where it reaches its maximum depth of 969 m. The coastal areas are shallow. Coral reefs border the gulf. The Fly River empties into the Gulf of Papua.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.