Titiwangsa Mountains

A granitic tor on the summit of Mount Datuk, Rembau District, Negeri Sembilan, near the southern end of the range.

Mogotes dot along the western edge of the range in Kinta District, Perak, part of the Kinta Valley National Geopark.

The Titiwangsa Mountains is part of a suture zone that runs north–south, starting in Thailand at the Nan-Uttaradit suture zone (partly coincident with the Dien Bien Phu fault), and extending south towards Peninsular Malaysia (Bentong-Raub suture zone).[1] The eastern half of the Titiwangsa Mountains in Peninsular Malaysia is an amalgamation of continental terranes 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.[2][3]

The Cimmeria was separated from Gondwana around 400 mya during the Devonian and rifted towards Laurasia, the northeastern arm of Pangea. It attached to Laurasia completely around 280 mya during the Late Permian.

Sibumasu terranes on the other hand, only started to separate from Gondwana during the Early Permian and rifted towards Indochina. The collision of Sibumasu terranes and Indochina terranes during 200mya Late Triassic resulted in the closure of the Paleo-Tethys Ocean and formation of the modern Titiwangsa Mountain belts.

Relief map of Peninsular Malaysia, highlighting its mountainous core. The Titiwangsa Mountains is the longest range running along the border between the states of Perak and Selangor on the west coast with Kelantan and Pahang on the east coast, eventually straddling across the state of Negeri Sembilan further south. Nearby systems include Keledang and Bintang Ranges to its northwest, Benom Massif to the southeast, and Tahan Range to the east.

This mountain range is a part of the wider Tenasserim Hills system. It forms the southernmost section of the Indo-Malayan cordillera which runs from Tibet through the Kra Isthmus into the Malay Peninsula.[7]

The Titiwangsa Mountains begins 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 Thailand 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 Perak and Selangor with Kelantan and Pahang on the eastern side of the peninsula. From the tripoint of Pahang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan 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, Port Dickson and Rembau Districts, and eastern Negeri Sembilan, composed of the districts of Jelebu, Kuala Pilah, Jempol and Tampin - and ends in the south near Tampin, in the southern part of the state. Clusters of inselbergs project further southeastward into Melaka and Johor, and most of them are topographically isolated from the mountain range.

The highest elevation is 2,183 m (7,162 ft) Gunung Korbu, Perak. On the Thai side the highest point is 1,533 m Ulu Titi Basah (ยูลูติติ บาซาห์), at the Thai/Malaysian border between Yala Province and Perak.[8] In the southern section of the range, the highest is the 1,462 m (4,797 ft) Mount Besar Hantu, on the border between Negeri Sembilan and Pahang.

Tea plantation in Cameron Highlands

Genting Highlands, as seen from Kuala Lumpur

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.

Several popular tourist destinations such as Royal Belum, Cameron Highlands, Genting Highlands and Fraser's Hill 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 (ranked #1) and Kinta Valley (ranked #4). The Kinta Valley Geopark encompasses the entirety of Kinta Valley, where kegelkarst topography is prevalent.

A number of roads and highways cut through the mountain range, effectively acting as mountain passes linking both settlements on both sides of the range.

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.

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  View of the Sankalakhiri in Aiyoeweng, Yala, near the Bang Lang Reservoir.
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  City of Betong, Yala, with the Sankalakhiri Range towering in the background.
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  The Titiwangsa Mountains seen from a layby along the East-West Highway near Gerik, Perak.
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  The peak of Mount Korbu, the tallest mountain of the range.
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  View of Mts.Yong Yap (left), Bubu (middle) and Tok Nenek (right, with a characteristic col) from the northern side of Mount Yong Belar
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  As viewed from Cameron Highlands
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  The Titiwangsa Mountains tower over the North-South Expressway in Slim River, Perak.
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  View from Fraser's Hill
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  The eastern flank of the Titiwangsa Mountains, as seen from the East Coast Expressway near Karak, Pahang.
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  A ford in Janda Baik, Pahang along the trail to Mount Nuang
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  The Titiwangsa Mountains near Kuala Kubu Baru, Selangor.
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  The Titiwangsa Mountains near Batang Kali, Selangor.
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  As seen from a residential skyscraper in Kuala Lumpur
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  The Titiwangsa Mountains seen from the North-South Expressway near Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. Visible are Mts. Angsi (the mountain with the darker hue), Berembun and Telapak Buruk (background).
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  The Titiwangsa Mountains near Kuala Pilah, Negeri Sembilan.
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  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.
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  Mount Tampin, Negeri Sembilan, the southern terminus of contiguous Titiwangsa Mountains. Taken at Pulau Sebang, Malacca

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