Gua Kelam

Gua Kelam means cave of darkness, and the thing that makes it worth the stop is not the formations but the structure inside: a suspended wooden walkway runs the full length of the cave, some three hundred and seventy metres, built early in the twentieth century so that tin ore from the Kaki Bukit mines could be carried through the hill to the valley on the other side, with a stream running below it the whole way. You enter from the Kaki Bukit side, walk through in dim artificial light with the water audible underneath, and come out into a recreation park with a pool and picnic ground at the far end. It is a short, easy, slightly eerie passage rather than a caving trip, and the historical purpose is the point.

The landscape

• A 370-metre walkway - suspended timber running the length of the cave.
• A stream underneath - audible and visible below the boards all the way through.
• A mining route - built to move tin ore through the hill from Kaki Bukit.
• A park at the far end - pool and picnic ground where the passage emerges.

When to go

All year. An hour or two.

What to expect

The boards are wet and slippery and lighting is dim. It is short and takes about twenty minutes to walk. Formations are limited; the interest is the structure and the history.

Nearby

Perlis State Park and Wang Kelian are north; Kangar is south.

Key facts