Alue Gureb – a small village in the Peureulak Timur district of East Aceh
Alue Gureb is a small-sized settlement in the eastern part of Indonesia's Aceh Province, administratively belonging to Peureulak Timur Kecamatan (district), which forms part of Kabupaten Aceh Timur (East Aceh Regency). Based on the settlement's coordinates (4.696° north latitude, 97.891° east longitude), it is located in the inland, terrestrial areas of the eastern coastline on the northern part of Sumatra Island, facing the Malacca Strait. Kabupaten Aceh Timur itself lies on the eastern side of Aceh Province, and according to 2023 data, it has a total population of approximately 450,000 inhabitants. No independent, settlement-level statistical or encyclopedic sources are available for Alue Gureb, so in the following we present the environment based on verified information available at the level of the broader administrative units – Peureulak Timur district and Kabupaten Aceh Timur.
General overview
Alue Gureb belongs to Peureulak Timur Kecamatan, which is one of the districts in the Kabupaten Aceh Timur administrative system. It is characteristic of the regency as a whole that the region is primarily characterized by agricultural and mining activities; alongside Aceh Utara and Aceh Tamiang, the area is regarded as one of the oil-rich zones. This economic background has influenced the local employment structure and infrastructure development across the regency for decades. Peureulak city itself – into whose district Peureulak Timur also falls – has historically been one of the most significant points in East Aceh and plays an important role in local identity. Alue Gureb is a smaller settlement, likely of agricultural character, forming part of the broader Peureulak region, but we do not have independent, publicly available data about the village. The population density of the regency as a whole is moderate, and the region's infrastructure relies on main roads established along the eastern axis of Aceh Province.
Real estate and investment
No comparable, publicly available data exists for Alue Gureb's real estate market, so in the following we outline the general market context interpretable at the level of Kabupaten Aceh Timur and Aceh Province. Aceh Province's real estate market underwent significant changes during the post-2004 tsunami reconstruction period, and thanks to the presence of state and international aid organizations, relatively substantial infrastructure investments were realized throughout the province. In Kabupaten Aceh Timur, the local economic activity associated with hydrocarbon extraction may influence land values in certain areas, particularly in the vicinity of industrial and logistics zones. Generally speaking, in rural, small village zones – such as Alue Gureb likely is – real estate prices are significantly lower than in more urbanized maritime port cities or the provincial capital, Banda Aceh. Regarding foreign property acquisition, under the generally applicable rules of Indonesian land law, foreign private individuals cannot acquire direct, full ownership rights (Hak Milik) over property in Indonesia; rather, Hak Pakai (usage rights) and certain lease structures are available to them, uniformly regulated throughout the country.
Safety and security
No independent, verifiable data is available for Alue Gureb's public safety, so we outline the broader regional context, framed cautiously. Kabupaten Aceh Timur was in the past a central operating area of the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM), or the Aceh Freedom Movement. According to sources documented by Wikipedia, before the military emergency declared in May 2003, the Aceh Timur region – and particularly Peureulak and its surroundings – was considered a so-called black zone in terms of the conflict. Following the 2005 Helsinki peace talks and the durably accepted peace agreement, the armed conflict ended and Aceh Province's security situation stabilized overall. Currently, the region is not classified as an active conflict zone, and the province functions as an integral part of the Indonesian state with regular law enforcement and judicial systems. However, a concrete, current, village-level assessment of public safety exceeds the scope of publicly available, verified source material, so we do not make detailed statements on this matter.
Tourist attractions
No specific data is recorded in verifiable sources for Alue Gureb as a tourist destination. Limited tourism documentation is publicly available for the broader Peureulak Timur district environment. Kabupaten Aceh Timur as a whole is not among the most intensively visited tourist zones of Aceh Province; the province's most well-known natural and cultural attractions are located rather on the western coast (Banda Aceh and the coastline west of Banda Aceh), in the Louser Ecosystem, and in the Alas River valley. Peureulak city itself is noteworthy from a local history perspective because the region was once the territory of the Peureulak Kingdom, one of the earliest Islamic-professing Southeast Asian kingdoms, which locals continue to note today. We do not provide precise data on how easily this symbolic and historical environment is accessible from Alue Gureb, as we cannot verify distances from source material. With regard to the natural environment, it can generally be said that the interior of eastern Sumatra is a humid, rainforest landscape shaped by local agriculture and plantation management.
Summary
Alue Gureb is a small settlement, administratively belonging to Peureulak Timur Kecamatan in Kabupaten Aceh Timur, in the eastern band of Aceh Province, on Sumatra. The regency is a region with an oil-rich past and the legacy of a concluded armed conflict, which has stabilized since the 2005 peace agreement. In the absence of independent, village-level data, a more detailed presentation of the settlement is not possible; the real estate market, public safety, and tourism characteristics pertaining to it can be understood at the level of the broader regency and province, which we have outlined above within verified parameters.
