| The Spratly Islands (as they are known in the West) are a group of more than 100 islands and reefs spread across an elliptical area 1000 km (625 mi) long and 400 km (250 mi) wide in the South China Sea northwest of Borneo, southwest of the Philippines, and east of Vietnam. The history of the islands is long and complex. France claimed the islands as part of French Indochina and occupied several of them, but this claim was not recognized internationally. Presently Vietnam, China, and Taiwan claim all of the islands, Malaysia and the Philippines claim some of them, and Indonesia and Brunei have economic interests in the area although they make no formal claims. Following the reunification of the country in 1975, Vietnam moved quickly to establish a presence in the Spratlys. The Vietnamese now occupy more than 20 islands, and they have built substantial lighthouses on at least nine of them. Taiwan, Malaysia, and the Philippines also operate one or more lights in the islands. These lights do have navigational value, but they are also intended as assertions of sovereignty, even though international tribunals have ruled several times that building a lighthouse does not establish ownership of an island. ARLHS numbers are from the ARLHS World List of Lights. Admiralty numbers are from volume F of the Admiralty List of Lights & Fog Signals. U.S. NGA List numbers are from Publication 112.
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![]() Da Lat Light Vietnam Maritime Safety Company II photo |
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![]() Da Tay Light Vietnam Maritime Safety Company II photo |
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![]() Taiping Dao; Republic of China photo |
Information available on lost lighthouses:
Notable faux lighthouses:
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Posted April 24, 2006. Checked and revised October 1, 2008. Lighthouses: 11. Site copyright 2008 Russ Rowlett and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.