Batu Caves
Batu Caves are a series of limestone caves in Gombak, Selangor, Malaysia. It is located on a 325 m (1,066 ft)–tall mogote, about 13 km (8.1 mi) north of the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur. The cave complex contains many Hindu temples, the most popular of which is a shrine dedicated to Murugan, and is the focal point of the Tamil Hindu festival of Thaipusam in Malaysia. The complex hosts a 43 m (141 ft) tall Murugan statue, amongst the tallest Murugan statues in the world.
The name for the cave complex is derived from the word batu from Malay meaning "rock". The hill was called as "Kapal Tanggang" (ship of Si Tanggang) as per Si Tanggang, the Malay version of the Minang folktale Malin Kundang. In Tamil, the temple complex is called as Pathu malai .
The caves were used as shelters by the indigenous Temuan people, a tribe of Orang Asli. In the 1860s, Chinese settlers began excavating guano from the caves, used as fertilisers. In 1878, the caves were visited by American naturalist William Hornaday. K. Thamboosamy, an Indian Tamil trader, promoted the cave complex as a site of Hindu worship. A Hindu temple dedicated to lord Murugan was completed in 1891 with the annual Thaipusam celebrations commencing in 1892. Further development of religious sites has happened ever since in the region. Housing development around the region began in the late 20th century with non-governmental organisations expressing concerns about the over-development.
The caves are situated on a 325 m (1,066 ft)-tall mogote and consists of a series of limestone caves, formed more than 400 million years ago. It is a complex cave system consisting of 20 recognized caves including four large cave systems with multiple inter-connected chambers. Water which fell on the surface of the caves, percolated through it, and interacted with the subsurface, causing the dissolution of limestone rocks, and resulting in the formation of speleothems. There are numerous stalactites jutting from the ceiling, stalagmites rising from the floor, and other formations such as flowstones, cave pearls, and scallops. The interiors would have been damp and wet when the caves were being formed. While it is widely stated that the caves themselves are 400 million years old, this age only refers to the formation of the limestone. It is estimated that the deposits started lifting in the Devonian, Carboniferous or even Triassic period (around 300-200 million years ago), and that the formation of the caves started in the late Cretaceous or early Tertiary age, i.e. 60-120 million years ago.
The Batu cave system and its caverns is a biodiversity hotspot consisting of many plant and animal species, many of which are specific to such limestone environments. About 269 species of vascular plants including 56 species (21%) of calciphiles have been recorded from the site. There are a diverse range of cave fauna, including endemic species such as the trapdoor spider Liphistius batuensis. There are 21 species of bats, including several species of fruit bats. The dark cave system is home to numerous species of insects including haplotaxids, spiders, mites, ticks, scorpions, springtails, beetles, flies, ants, wasps, bees, butterflies, moths and other animals such as frogs, lizards, snakes, snails and large numbers of introduced rock pigeons. The bat guano is home to a native species of cockroach, Pycnoscelus striatus. The site is also home to numerous long-tailed macaques. The monkeys often depend on people for food and might cause disturbance or nuisance. To preserve the cave's ecology, access is restricted in the inner cave complex which can be accessed by the educational trips organised by the Malaysian Nature Society. Development over the years, industrial activity, and the high number of fo
Cave data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).