Langkawi Geopark is Malaysia’s first geopark and is located in the far northwestern corner of peninsular Malaysia. Located in northern State of Kedah, it is unique in the sense that it was formed on 99 islands that made up the legendary Langkawi Archipelago.

The total land area of Langkawi Geopark is about 478km².

It is accessible by sea from Kuala Perlis, Kuala Kedah and Penang or by air from Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Singapore and Bangkok.

Entrance to Gua Langsir

Langkawi has been dubbed as the birthplace or the fetus land of the region. The various natural landscapes of Langkawi reflects the islands’ geodiversity and its complex geological history. It has the best-exposed and most complete Paleozoic sedimentary sequence in Malaysia beginning from Cambrian to the Permian period. Later during the Mesozoic, the islands underwent a major tectonic event that resulted in the emplacement of its numerous granitic igneous bodies.

This incredible power generated by nature from the deep mantle beneath the earth has driven up huge blocks of older rocks and somehow placed them above a very much younger terrain.

In Langkawi’s geological history, much of its geological development was linked to what had happened in the old super continent Pangea and southern hemispheric Gondwanaland since more than 550 million years ago. It started in the deposition of Machinchang sandstone in a lacustrine environment during much of the Cambrian time, followed by the submergence of the land during Late Cambrian time (~500m.y.) which allowed the invasion of shallow marine fauna into the proto-Langkawi sea. The continuous subsidence of the sea floor resulted in the formation of thick limestone of Setul Formation during the Ordovician. At the end of Ordovician time (~440m.y.), the sea became too deep to eventually stop the limestone deposition temporarily.

GEOFOREST PARK: KILIM KARST