Twelve of the fourteen districts tabulated above lie within the official metropolitan area of the city of Makassar; the remaining two districts (Camba and Mallawa), which together form the northeast salient of the regency (with just 6.71% of the regency's population in mid 2023), are not included in the metropolitan area.

[8] The main site of the rock art is in seven caves around 40–60 km north east of Makassar.

The oldest is a hand stencil located in Timpuseng cave with an estimated age of over 39,000 years.

[10] The rock art in the caves was originally discovered in the 1950s by a Dutch archaeologist, H. R. van Heekeren, but at the time, was not regarded as being especially significant.

[11] More recently, analysis of the pictures by an Australian-Indonesian team suggests that a number of the markings are over 30,000 years old.

[14] Wallace discusses his visit to the region in his well-known book The Malay Archipelago first published in 1869.

[16] The Karaenta Nature Reserve, best known for the Moor macaque monkeys (Macaca maura) in the park, is located in the Cenrana district (kecamatan) in the regency.

[17] Moor macaques are endemic to Sulawesi and are considered to be endangered because the remaining numbers are believed to be limited.