It is the largest province in the island of Sumatra, and it is slightly smaller than Portugal, the department of Boquerón in Paraguay or the U.S. state of Maine.

The evidence of those settlements is proven by discoveries of Palaeolithic tools in the riverbed of Saling and Kikim rivers in Bungamas Village, Lahat Regency and Seventy-eight skeletons dating back to 3,000–14,000 years ago, presumably of Austronesian and Austromelanesoid origins was excavated from the site of Harimau Cave in Padang Bindu Village, Ogan Komering Ulu Regency.

[9] Relics of seven stone chambers believed to be about 2,500 years old were found near a coffee plantation in Kotaraya Lembak, Lahat Regency.

The expansion of this kingdom into Java and the Malay Peninsula, allowed Srivijaya to control the main trade routes in Southeast Asia.

In 955 CE, Al Masudi, a traveler and classical Arab historian wrote about Srivijaya, describing it as a large kingdom that was rich, with many soldiers.

[17] Another note from a Persian expert named Abu Zaid Hasan who received information from Sujaimana, an Arab trader, that the empire was well-advanced in the field of agriculture.

Abu Zaid wrote that the kingdom of Zabaj (another Arabic name for Srivijaya) had fertile land and extensive power to the other side of the sea.

The Srivijaya emperor, Sri Cudamani Warmadewa, escaped out of the capital and traveled around regaining its strength and reinforcements from his allies and subordinate kings and succeeded in repelling the Javanese navy.

[18] According to the Chinese Song dynasty book Zhu Fan Zhi,[24] written around 1225 by Zhao Rugua, the two most powerful and richest kingdoms in the Southeast Asian archipelago were Srivijaya and Java (Kediri), with the western part (Sumatra, the Malay peninsula, and western Java/Sunda) under Srivijaya's rule and the eastern part under Kediri's domination.

[14] According to George Cœdès, at the end of the 13th century, the empire "had ceased to exist... caused by the simultaneous pressure on its two flanks of Siam and Java.

Around the early 16th century, Tomé Pires, an adventurer from Portugal, said that Palembang had been led by an appointed patih (regent) from Java who was later referred to the Demak Sultanate and participated in attacking Malacca, which at that time had been controlled by the Portuguese.

[26] As the Dutch East India Company increased its influence in the region, the Sultanate started to decline and lost its power.

The British, under Stamford Raffles responded by attacking Palembang, sacking the court, and installing sultan's more cooperative younger brother, Najamuddin to the throne.

[39] The province has no clear ethnic dominance, though the indigenous Musi-speaking Palembang have a plurality, followed by the Javanese, most of whom have been recent migrants from Java as part of the government-sanctioned transmigration project created to balance the population, especially from the highly overpopulated Java island; as a result, Javanese is also widely spoken and understood, especially in areas with a high population of transmigrant, for example Belitang.

Forming the next largest group is the other Malayic-speaking populations as well as the Komering, a distinct Malayo-Polynesian people related to the native Lampungese from neighboring Lampung.

The architectural model of the Palembang house which is most typical is the rumah limas which is mostly erected on stilts on the water to protect from flooding that continues to occur until now.

Moreover, this language has absorbed words from Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Chinese, Portuguese, English and Dutch, because Palembang was once a large trading city, attracting various kinds of merchants from various places.

As used by children to parents, daughter-in-law to parents-in-law, students to teachers, or between speakers of the same age as the purpose of mutual respect, because Bebaso means to speak politely and subtly.

The South Sumatran signature food, Pempek, can not only be found in the city of Palembang and the surrounding area, but also has spread throughout Indonesia as well as neighbouring countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.

The Javanese people, besides adapting the Limas house shape, also recognize the word pawon to mention the position of the kitchen in their home.

And for women using lotus, red noble brackets studded with golden star flowers, lepus songket cloth embroidered with gold, and headdress in the form of Aesan Paksangkong crown.

Both songs and dances depict the nobility of culture, glory, and the majesty of the former Srivijaya Empire which once triumphed in uniting the western Nusantara.

As a province traversed by several large rivers, the people of South Sumara also recognize the importance water transport, which is called ketek.

Domestic flights are served to and from Jakarta, Bandung, Batam, Pangkal Pinang and other cities, as well as international destinations such as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

It is one of its first kind in Indonesia and it is used to carry passengers from the Sultan Mahmud Badaruddin II International Airport to the Palembang city center.

Palembang cuisine primarily uses freshwater fish and prawns as key ingredients due to the paramount role of the Musi River for the area.

Popular freshwater fish includes patin (Pangasius), baung (Hemibagrus), lais (Kryptopterus cryptopterus), lele (catfish), gabus (snakehead), mas (carp) and gurame (gourami).

[51] Because of its location that is not far from the sea, seafood such as shrimp, tenggiri (wahoo), kakap merah (red snapper) and Spanish mackerel are also popular in Palembang.

For example, both Javanese and Palembang Malay dialects refer fish as iwak, and cooking method employing banana leaf package as brengkes or brengkesan.

Sriwijaya F.C is the only active professional football club in South Sumatra and is widely followed across the province, especially in its home city Palembang.