Sambas is a town and the regency seat of Sambas Regency (Kabupaten Sambas), on the island of Kalimantan. Sambas Regency is one of the regencies of West Kalimantan province in Indonesia.
The town was the center of the Sultanate of Sambas. In 1813, it was captured by the British in the second Sambas expedition, but the British did not occupy the town for long and the Sultan was restored later that year.
In 1963, a new district named Sejangkung District was established from the northeastern portion of Sambas District. On 21 June 2001, a new Subah District was cut out from the southern part of Sambas District. In 2004, new Sebawi and Sajad Districts were split off from the southeast and eastern portions of Sambas District, respectively.
Sambas town is located on the south side of the Sambas River between 1ð11'20" and 1ð24'48" north latitude and between 109ð09'16" and 109ð26'23" east longitude. With an area of , Sambas town area covers just 3.7% of the area of Sambas Regency. The town district had 57,295 inhabitants at the 2020 Census, and had increased to 60,880 at the official estimates for mid 2024.
The following are the boundaries of Sambas town:
The town district is composed of 18 villages (desa), listed below with their populations as at mid 2024.
Sambas has a tropical rainforest climate (Af) with heavy to very heavy rainfall year-round.