Hugely prosperous in the eighteenth century, it is now a quiet, peaceful backwater, with its past glory still in evidence.

In Bijdragen tot de kennis van de residentie Madoera (1858) published in Tijdschrift voor Nederlandsch Indië, J. Hageman stated that since Tirtonegoro replaced Cokronegoro II in 1751, the word Sumenep was used officially as meaning "settled water" – bezonken water (in Dutch).

Most of the Kota Sumenep District area is located in the lowlands, which around 46 percent is paddy fields, rivers and plantations, the remainder is in the form of residential land, offices or agencies, shops, industry and other urban infrastructure.

[8] Kota Sumenep has a tropical savanna climate (Aw) with May to November and heavy rainfall from December to April.

[10] Administratively, the Kota Sumenep District area has 12 villages (desa) and 4 urban villages/wards (kelurahan) which are divided into 57 hamlets (dusun) or neighborhoods (lingkungan).