Perak Island (,
Jawi: ڤولاو ڤيراق) is a small rocky island which constitutes the
westernmost extremity of
Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
n territory. Its diameter is around 200 meters. The island is a sandstone rock that rises from the
Strait of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, long and from wide, between the Malay Peninsula to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connecting the Andaman Sea (Indian Ocean) and the South China Sea (Pa ...
. It has a steep cliff with a height of more than 100m.
Perak Island is part of the Malaysian
state
State most commonly refers to:
* State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory
**Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country
**Nation state, a ...
of
Kedah
Kedah (), also known by its honorific Darul Aman (Islam), Aman (دار الأمان; Arabic for 'The Safe Abode') and historically as Queda, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of ...
, administered under
Yan District. It is expected to be designated as a
marine protected area
A marine protected area (MPA) is a protected area of the world's seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity ...
. The island is 158 km northwest of
Penang
Penang is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia along the Strait of Malacca. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay Peninsula. Th ...
, the nearest metropolitan area.
In March 2014,
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (MH370/MAS370) was an international passenger flight operated by Malaysia Airlines that disappeared from radar on 8 March 2014, while flying from Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Malaysia to its planned de ...
disappeared off the Malaysian radar near the island.
On 25 July 2022, Sultan
Sallehuddin of Kedah
Al-Aminul Karim Sultan Sallehuddin ibni Almarhum Sultan Badlishah (Jawi alphabet, Jawi: ; born 30 April 1942) is the 29th Sultan of Kedah since ascending to the throne in September 2017 upon the death of his elder half-brother Abdul Halim of ...
declared Perak Island as the new reference point for Islamic Calendar calculation, replacing Tanjung Chinchin in
Langkawi
Langkawi, officially known as Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah (), is a duty-free island and an archipelago of 99 islands (plus five small islands visible only at low tide in the Strait of Malacca) located some 30 km off the coast of northwe ...
.
References
Islands of Kedah
Islands of the Strait of Malacca
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