The Titiwangsa Mountains ( Malay: ''Banjaran Titiwangsa'', ), also known as ''Banjaran Besar'' (lit. 'main range') by locals, is the chain of mountains that forms the backbone of the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

. The northern section of the range is in

southern Thailand Southern Thailand (formerly Southern Siam and Tambralinga) is the southernmost cultural region of Thailand, separated from Central Thailand by the Kra Isthmus. Geography Southern Thailand is on the Malay Peninsula, with an area of around , bo ...

, where it is known as the Sankalakhiri Range (; RTGS: ''Thio Khao Sankalakhiri''; ). The mountain range acts as a natural divider, dividing

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia, historically known as Malaya and also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, is the western part of Malaysia that comprises the southern part of the Malay Peninsula on Mainland Southeast Asia and the list of isla ...

, as well as southernmost Thailand, into east and west coast regions. It also serves as a

drainage divide A drainage divide, water divide, ridgeline, watershed, water parting or height of land is elevated terrain that separates neighboring drainage basins. On rugged land, the divide lies along topographical ridges, and may be in the form of a single ...

of some major rivers of Peninsular Malaysia such as the

Pahang {{Infobox political division , name = Pahang , official_name = Pahang Darul Makmur , native_name = , settlement_type = States and federal territories of Malaysia, State , image_skyline = , imagesize ...

Perak Perak (; Perak Malay: ''Peghok'') is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state of Malaysia on the west coast of the Malay Peninsula. Perak has land borders with the Malaysian states of Kedah to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kel ...

Kelantan Kelantan (; Kelantan-Pattani Malay, Kelantanese Malay: ''Klate''; ) is a state in Malaysia. The capital, Kota Bharu, includes the royal seat of Kubang Kerian. The honorific, honorific name of the state is ''Darul Naim'' ("The Blissful Abode"). ...

, Klang and Muar. The length of mountain range is about 480 km from north to south.

Geography

This mountain range is a part of the wider

Tenasserim Hills The Tenasserim Hills or Tenasserim Range (, ; , , ; ) is the geographical name of a roughly 1,700 km long mountain chain, part of the Indo-Malayan mountain system in Southeast Asia. Despite their relatively scant altitude these mo ...

. It forms the southernmost section of the Indo-Malayan

cordillera A cordillera is a chain or network of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope'). The term is most commonly used in physical geogra ...

which runs from

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...

through the

Kra Isthmus The Kra Isthmus (, ; ), also called the Isthmus of Kra in Thailand, is the narrowest part of the Malay Peninsula. The western part of the isthmus belongs to Ranong Province and the eastern part to Chumphon Province, both in Southern Thailan ...

into the

. The Titiwangsa Mountains proper begin in the north as the Sankalakhiri Range, a prolongation of the Nakhon Si Thammarat Range which includes the smaller Pattani, Taluban, and Songkhla sub-ranges. The Sankalakhiri marks the border between the Southern Thai provinces of Yala in west and Narathiwat in the east. Across the border into Malaysia, the main stretch of the range runs in a northwest–southeast orientation, straddling the borders between the west coast states of

and

Selangor Selangor ( ; ), also known by the Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the e ...

with

and

on the eastern side of the peninsula. From the

tripoint A triple border, tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geography, geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or Administrative division, subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints ...

and

Negeri Sembilan Negeri Sembilan (, Negeri Sembilan Malay: ''Nogoghi Sombilan'', ''Nismilan''), historically spelled as Negri Sembilan, is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia which lies on the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, wes ...

near Mount Nuang, it then transverses through the middle of the state of Negeri Sembilan, also a west coast state, thus dividing the state into two regions – western Negeri Sembilan, which consists of

Seremban Seremban (Negeri Sembilan Malay: ''Somban'') is a city in the Seremban District and the capital of the state of Negeri Sembilan in Peninsular Malaysia. The city's administration is run by the Seremban Municipal Council, Seremban City Council. ...

, Port Dickson and

Rembau District The Rembau District () is a Districts of Malaysia, district that is located in the state of Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The district is a stronghold of the matrilineal system known as ''adat perpatih'', a customary practice inherited from the Mi ...

s, and eastern Negeri Sembilan, composed of the districts of Jelebu, Kuala Pilah, Jempol and Tampin – and terminates in the south near the town of Tampin, in the southern part of the state. Outcrops of Titiwangsa

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

, mainly consisting of inselbergs, project further south into

Malacca Malacca (), officially the Historic State of Malacca (), is a States and federal territories of Malaysia, state in Malaysia located in the Peninsular Malaysia#Other features, southern region of the Malay Peninsula, facing the Strait of Malacca ...

, where it abuts in the waters of 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 ...

in Pulau Besar. In general, the greatest elevations occur along the northern and central sections of the range, with its highest point measuring 2,183 m (7,162 ft) on Gunung Korbu,

. On the Thai side, the highest point is 1,533 m (5,026 ft) Ulu Titi Basah (ยูลูติติ บาซาห์), at the Thai/Malaysian border between Yala province and

. On the other hand, the height gradually diminishes towards the southern reaches of the range, which mainly runs through

, with elevations ranging from 1,462 m (4,797 ft) at its highest on Mount Besar Hantu, on the border between the state and

, as well as 1,193 m (3,914 ft) on Mount Telapak Buruk on the boundary between the districts of

and Jelebu to .

Geology

The Titiwangsa Mountains are predominantly

granitic A granitoid is a broad term referring to a diverse group of coarse-grained igneous rocks that are widely distributed across the globe, covering a significant portion of the Earth's exposed surface and constituting a large part of the continental ...

. The mountain range is part of a suture zone that runs north–south, starting in

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

at the Nan- Uttaradit suture zone (partly coincident with the Dien Bien Phu fault), and extending south towards Peninsular

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 ...

(

Bentong Bentong, the seat of Bentong District, is a town located in western Pahang, Malaysia, at the border with the state of Selangor in the west and the state of Negeri Sembilan in the south. Government Bentong Municipal Council () is the local au ...

- Raub suture zone). The eastern half of the Titiwangsa Mountains in

is an amalgamation of continental

terrane In geology, a terrane (; in full, a tectonostratigraphic terrane) is a crust fragment formed on a tectonic plate (or broken off from it) and accreted or " sutured" to crust lying on another plate. The crustal block or fragment preserves its d ...

s known as Cimmeria or Indochina, whereas the western half is an amalgamation of continental terranes Sinoburmalaya or Sibumasu. These two halves of terranes were separated by the

Paleo-Tethys Ocean The Paleo-Tethys or Palaeo-Tethys Ocean was an ocean located along the northern margin of the paleocontinent Gondwana that started to open during the Middle Cambrian, grew throughout the Paleozoic, and finally closed during the Late Triassic; ex ...

. The Cimmeria was separated from

Gondwana Gondwana ( ; ) was a large landmass, sometimes referred to as a supercontinent. The remnants of Gondwana make up around two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia (continent), Australia, Zea ...

around 400 mya during the

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

and rifted towards Laurasia, the northeastern arm of

Pangea Pangaea or Pangea ( ) was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia (continent), Siberia during the Carboniferous period ...

. It attached to Laurasia completely around 280 mya during the

Late Permian Late or LATE may refer to: Everyday usage * Tardy, or late, not being on time * Late (or the late) may refer to a person who is dead Music * ''Late'' (The 77s album), 2000 * Late (Alvin Batiste album), 1993 * Late!, a pseudonym used by Dave Groh ...

. Sibumasu terranes on the other hand, only started to separate from Gondwana during the

Early Permian 01 or 01 may refer to: * The year 2001, or any year ending with 01 * The month of January * 1 (number) Music * '01 (Richard Müller album), ''01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001 * 01 (Urban Zakapa album), ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011 * ''01011 ...

and rifted towards Indochina. The collision of the Sibumasu terranes and Indochina terranes 200 mya during the

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch (geology), epoch of the Triassic geologic time scale, Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between annum, Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch a ...

resulted in the closure of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean and formation of the modern Titiwangsa Mountain belts.

Seismic hazards

, while being tectonically stable, has a history of

intraplate earthquake An intraplate earthquake occurs in the ''interior'' of a Plate tectonics, tectonic plate, in contrast to an interplate earthquake on the ''boundary'' of a tectonic plate. They are relatively rare compared to the more familiar interplate earthqu ...

s, with most of them of low magnitudes. As the Bentong-Raub suture runs parallel to the Titiwangsa Mountains, a large network of fault lines crisscross the mountain range. The known major fault lines in the mountains are the Bukit Tinggi,

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

and

fault lines, with the first two being the most active. Between 1984 and 2013, there were tremors ranging from 1.6 to 4.6 on the

Richter scale The Richter scale (), also called the Richter magnitude scale, Richter's magnitude scale, and the Gutenberg–Richter scale, is a measure of the strength of earthquakes, developed by Charles Richter in collaboration with Beno Gutenberg, and pr ...

with local epicentres in Kenyir Lake,

Manjung The Manjung District, formerly known as Dindings, is a list of districts in Malaysia, district in the south-western part of the state of Perak, Malaysia. It is the List of districts in Malaysia, 26th-most populated district in Malaysia. It is ...

, Temenggor, Bukit Tinggi and Kuala Pilah, the latter three being situated along the Titiwangsa Mountains. As a precautionary move, the Department of Minerals and Geosciences pitched 23 Earthquake Benchmark (PAG, Malay: ''Penanda Aras Gempa'') stations around earthquake-prone areas in Peninsular Malaysia, with 13 in

, six in

, and two each in

and

to monitor possible movements within the fault network. The Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change (NRECC) also pointed out that strong earthquakes centred in neighbouring

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

could potentially activate ancient faults in Peninsular Malaysia and the effects of tremors could be felt around areas along the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia.

Features

The rainforests of the Titiwangsa Mountains form part of the Titiwangsa Forest Complex, which is itself part of the larger Central Forest Spine conservation area. A number of roads and highways cut through the mountain range, effectively acting as

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since mountain ranges can present formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human and animal migration t ...

es linking settlements on either side of the range. Several popular

tourist destination A tourist attraction is a place of interest that tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure and amusement. Types Places of natural beau ...

s such as Royal Belum, hill resorts such as

Cameron Highlands The Cameron Highlands () is a district in Pahang, Malaysia, occupying an area of . To the north, its boundary touches that of Kelantan; to the west, it shares part of its border with Perak. Situated at the northwestern tip of Pahang, Cameron Hi ...

Genting Highlands Genting Highlands is a hill station located on the peak of Mount Ulu Kali in the Titiwangsa Mountains, central Peninsular Malaysia, at 1800 metres elevation. Located in the state of Pahang, it was established in 1965 by the late Malaysian busi ...

and

Fraser's Hill Fraser's Hill (Malay language, Malay: ) is a hill resort in Raub District, Pahang, Malaysia, on the Pahangese and Selangor, Selangorean sections of the Titiwangsa Mountains. It is about north of Kuala Lumpur. In 1890, Louis James Fraser estab ...

are located on the range. Two of Malaysia's largest metropolitan areas are located along the western fringes of the mountain range, namely

Greater Kuala Lumpur Greater Kuala Lumpur (Malay language, Malay: ''Kuala Lumpur Raya'') is the geographical term that determines the boundaries of metropolitan Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. Though similar to the term "Klang Valley", there remains a variation between th ...

(ranked #1) and

Kinta Valley The Kinta Valley (Malay language, Malay: ) is a geographical feature and conurbation in central Perak, Malaysia, surrounding and including the state capital Ipoh. Historically the Kinta Valley was very rich in tin, and their mines have been among ...

(ranked #4). The Kinta Valley Geopark encompasses the entirety of Kinta Valley, where kegelkarst topography is prevalent.

Protected areas

Thailand

* San Kala Khiri National Park * Budo–Su-ngai Padi National Park * Bang Lang National Park * Namtok Sai Khao National Park *

Hala-Bala Wildlife Sanctuary file:ป่าฮาลา-บาลา (นราธิวาส) 1.jpg, 300px, Hala-Bala Wildlife Sanctuary. Hala-Bala Wildlife Sanctuary () is a List of protected areas of Thailand, wildlife sanctuary in Thailand, considered to be one of the ric ...

Malaysia

* Gunung Stong State Park * Selangor State Park * Kenaboi State Park * Royal Belum State Park * Krau Wildlife Reserve * Kinta Valley National Geopark * Forest Research Institute Malaysia

In popular culture

The mountain range was the subject of the patriotic song "Titiwangsa", which was first sung by Saloma. Its lyrics glorifies the magnificence and beauty of the Titiwangsa Mountains, and its significance to Malaya as a whole.

Gallery

File:The Sea of Mist Ai Yerweng, Betong.jpg, View of the Sankalakhiri in Aiyoeweng, Yala, near the Bang Lang Reservoir. File:เมืองเบตง - panoramio.jpg, City of Betong, Yala, with the Sankalakhiri Range towering in the background. File:Peak of Banjaran Titiwangsa.jpg, The Titiwangsa Mountains seen from a layby along the East-West Highway near

Gerik Gerik (alternate spelling: Grik) is a mukim and the district capital of Hulu Perak District, Perak, Malaysia. The town is also known as Rest Town due to its strategic location next to East-West Highway Federal Route 4, the main route linkin ...

. File:Korbu Peak.JPG, The peak of Mount Korbu, the tallest mountain of the range. File:Yong Belar.jpg, View of Mts. Yong Yap (left), Bubu (middle) and Tok Nenek (right, with a characteristic col) from the northern side of Mount Yong Belar File:Cameron highland.JPG, As viewed from

File:Banjaran titiwangsa2.jpg, The Titiwangsa Mountains tower over the North-South Expressway in

Slim River Slim River is a small town in Muallim District, Perak, Malaysia. It is about 100 km (driving time 45 minutes) from Kuala Lumpur. It is situated in the southern part of Perak and is 20 km north of Tanjung Malim. It is about 100 k ...

, Perak. File:View of Titiwangsa range from Fraser's Hill 3.jpg, View from

File:KarakTollPlaza.PNG, The eastern flank of the Titiwangsa Mountains, as seen from the

East Coast Expressway The East Coast Expressway (ECE; Malay language, Malay: , ''LPT'') is an interstate controlled-access highway running parallel to the northeastern coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The currently operational segment of the expressway runs through Karak ...

near Karak,

. File:Chemperoh 5.jpg, A ford in Janda Baik, Pahang, along the trail to Mount Nuang File:From a distance - panoramio (1).jpg, The Titiwangsa Mountains near Kuala Kubu Bharu,

. File:View of Batang Kali Town.jpg, The Titiwangsa Mountains near Batang Kali, Selangor. File:Kuala Lumpur skyline late afternoon from 29-floor apartment 03.jpg, As seen from a residential skyscraper in

File:Banjaran Titiwangsa di Seremban.jpg, The Titiwangsa Mountains seen from the North-South Expressway near

. Visible are Mts. Angsi (the mountain with the darker hue), Berembun and Telapak Buruk (background). File:Istana Seri Menanti (30042023) 20.jpg, The Titiwangsa Mountains at

Seri Menanti Seri Menanti (Negeri Sembilan Malay: or ) is a town, a mukim, and a state assembly constituency in Kuala Pilah District, central Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, located 33 km (20.5 m) east of the state capital city of Seremban and 14&nbs ...

, Negeri Sembilan. File:Banjaran Titiwangsa, Rembau.jpg, The southern section of the Titiwangsa Mountains in Kota, Negeri Sembilan. Mount Datuk rises to the east, which is on the right side of the picture. File:Gunung Tampin.jpg, Mount Tampin, Negeri Sembilan, the southern terminus of contiguous Titiwangsa Mountains. Seen from Pulau Sebang,

References

External links

Perak Tourism - Royal Belum State ParkGunung Stong State ParkSan Kara Khiri National ParkBudo - Su-ngai Padi National ParkNamtok Sai Khao National Park
{{Mountain ranges of Malaysia Malay Peninsula Mountain ranges of Thailand Mountain ranges of Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia Southern Thailand