SARAWAK AMAZING PLACES

GUA NIAH AND GUNUNG MULU

Niah Caves is located within the district of Miri in Sarawak,Malaysia. Part of Niah National Park, the main cave, Niah Great Cave, is located in Gunung Subis and is made up of several voluminous, high-ceilinged chambers. The Great Cave lies in a large limestone block, about a kilometre long in general north to south direction and about half a kilometre wide, that is detached from the main Gunung Subis complex, by a valley between about 150 to 200 meters wide. The main Gunung Subis complex rises to about 394^[1] meters above sea level at its highest point. The whole "Gunung Subis Limestone Complex" lies some 17 kilometres inland from the South China Sea coast and about 65 kilometres south west of the town Miri. It is roughly heart shaped measuring five kilometres from its northern tip to the south and four kilometres across. The Gunung Subis is surrounded by a low countryside with gentle hills from which the small limestone massiv and its smaller detached blocks rise rather appruptly out of the jungle, some with cliffs over 100 metres high.^[2] Though it is not an extensive cave system compared to others in Sarawak, it has been estimated to cover some 10 hectares and the roof rises to about 75 metres above the cave floor in some places.^[3] In geological terms, the limestones are part of the Subis Formation. This is dated to some 20 to 16 million years ago during the Early Miocene.^[2] The caves have been used by humans at different times ranging from the prehistory to neolithic, Chinese Sung-Era and more recent times.

The cave is an important prehistorical site where human remains dating to 40,000 years have been found.^[3] This is the oldest recorded human settlement in east Malaysia. More recent studies published in 2006 have shown evidence of the first human activity at the Niah caves from ca. 46,000 to ca. 34,000 years ago.^[4]Painted Cave, situated in a much smaller limestone block of its own, some 150 metres from the Great Cave block's south eastern tip, has rock paintings dated as 1,200 years old. The caves are also well known for thebirds' nest (Swiftlet) industry. It is a popular tourist destination in Sarawak. Archeologists have claimed a much earlier date for stone tools found in the Mansuli valley, near Lahad Datu inSabah, but precise dating analysis has not yet been published.^[5]

Research was pioneered by Tom Harrisson in the 1950/60s.^[6] Since then local universities and foreign scientists have continued the archaeological research, and many articles have been published in the Sarawak Museum Journal. The site has been re-excavated (1999-2003+)^[7] by a joint British-Malaysian expedition to determine the accuracy of Harrisson's work.

Items found at Niah Cave include Pleistocene chopping tools and flakes, Neolithic axes, adzes, pottery, shell jewellery, boats, mats, then iron tools and ceramics and glass beads dating to theIron Age. The most famous find is the human skull dated at around 38,000 years BCE.^[3][7]Painted Cave has paintings and wooden coffin 'death ships'.

Niah National Park was 31.4 km² when it was gazetted in 1974.^[8]

Nomination for World Heritage status was sent to UNESCO in 2010.

Gunung Mulu National Park near Miri, Sarawak,Malaysian Borneo, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that encompasses caves and karst formations in a mountainous equatorial rainforestsetting. The park is famous for its caves and the expeditions that have been mounted to explore them and their surrounding rainforest, most notably the Royal Geographical SocietyExpedition of 1977–1978, which saw over 100 scientists in the field for 15 months. This initiated a series of over 20 expeditions now drawn together as the Mulu Caves Project

The national park is named after Mount Mulu, the second highest mountain in Sarawak.

Gunung Mulu National Park is famous for its limestone karst formations. Features include enormous caves, vast cave networks, rock pinnacles, cliffs and gorges. Mount Mulu is asandstone mountain rising to 2,376 m (7,795 ft).

Gunung Mulu National Park has the largest known natural chamber or room - Sarawak Chamber, found in Gua Nasib Bagus. It is 2,300 feet (700 m) long, 1,300 feet (396 m) wide and at least 230 feet (70 m) high. It has been said that the chamber is so big that it could accommodate about 40 Boeing 747s, without overlapping their wings. The nearby Deer Cave was, for many years, considered the largest single cave passage in the world.

Other notable caves in this area are Benarat Cavern, Wind Cave, and Clearwater Cave; which contains parts one of the world's largest underground river systems and is believed to be the largest cave in the world by volume at 30,347,540 m³.

Mulu's limestones belong to the Melinau Formation and their age is between 17 and 40 million years (Late Eocene to Early Miocene).

Stratigraphically below the limestones, and forming the highest peaks in the south east sector of the Park including Gunung Mulu, lies the Mulu Formation (shales and sandstones). The age of these rocks is between 40 and 90 million years (Late Cretaceous to Late Eocene).