Talk about a blast to the past: some satellite images have just dropped – and they offer a fascinating glimpse into Bali as it was 60 years ago, long before global tourism changed its face forever.
The TreeMap has released satellite images of Bali from 1965. Now available on Nusantara Atlas, these images were captured by the KH-7 Gambit satellite, which was used on a top-secret U.S. reconnaissance mission during the Cold War.
According to Nusantara Atlas, these images have "stunning ground resolution of 0.61 to 0.91 metres", which means you can get some incredible detail of Bali's landscape at it was 60 years ago. The Nusantara Atlas website also provides nifty sliders for a side-by-side comparison of Bali then and now. All you have to do is plug a Bali address into the map.
We have to say, the comparison is pretty stunning. You can see quiet coasts now lined with sprawling resorts and sophisticated beach clubs. Squares of rice fields and forests have also given way to new infrastructure – we're guessing, more resorts, villas, and tourist-oriented venues.
Besides a nostalgic look back at 'old Bali', it's a timely reminder of the overtourism woes plaguing the island. In 2024, 6.3 million foreign tourists visited Bali – a 20% increase from 2023, and staggering compared to 1970, when it welcomed just 24,000 foreign tourists to its shores.
The impact is most famously felt in the choked roads in neighbourhoods like Canggu and Ubud, though littering, waste management, and degradation of natural landscapes are also pressing issues. Travel publication Fodor placed Bali on its 'perennial no-list destinations' category, meant for "places that have been suffering from the impact of overtourism for a while" with little progress made to mitigate the issues.
But perhaps these new satellite images will do some good. Nusantara Atlas says it will be analysing the pictures to understand how tourism development and urban sprawl have changed Bali, and the environmental, agricultural, and cultural shifts that have come with it. The goal is to inform measures to manage Bali's development in the future. Bali's government also seems to be getting serious about tackling overtourism, with a slew of measures – from a potential tourist tax to bans on new hotels – to check crowding and development.
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