Lenggong
| Archaeological Heritage of the Lenggong Valley | |
|---|---|
| Name as inscribed on the World Heritage List | |
| Location | Malaysia |
| Type | Cultural |
| Criteria | iii, iv |
| Reference | 1396 |
| UNESCO region | Asia-Pacific |
| Inscription history | |
| Inscription | 2012 (36th Session) |
Lenggong (Chinese: 玲珑) is a town, a mukim and a parliamentary constituency in Hulu Perak District, Perak, Malaysia. Lenggong is famous for its archaeological sites.
The Lenggong valley in Hulu Perak is one of Peninsular Malaysia's most important areas for archaeology, as excavations have revealed many traces of Malaysia's prehistory. It is the site of the oldest known place of human activity in the Peninsula. Today it is still a rural area, with small kampongs surrounded by green vegetation and limestone hills. Lenggong can be likened to an open-air museum, and is home to legends, skeletons, cave drawings and precious finds such as jewellery, pottery, weapons and stone tools. Many of the caves in the Lenggong area have revealed evidence of ancient humans having lived and hunted in this area.
The Lenggong Valley was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site on 30 June 2012.
Lenggong is accessible by trunk roads connecting it with neighbouring towns and cities. The town of Lenggong is situated some 100 kilometres north of Ipoh on the Kuala Kangsar to Grik road (highway 76). The road to Lenggong is surrounded mostly by oil palm estates and jungles. As cows and buffalo are part of the agriculture, they are often seen along the road. The jungles (about million years old) are now in danger of heavy illegal logging.
To visit Lenggong, from the North-South Expressway take Exit No.143 at Kuala Kangsar – that's about 3 hours away from Kuala Lumpur. Then take Route 76 to Lenggong. The new highway is open and has replaced the old scenic kampung road.
Malaysia is considered a very young country archaeologically with a very recent prehistory. In Africa, the predecessors of the human species originated about 3 – 5 million years ago. Their descendants migrated out of Africa and their prehistoric remains have been found all over Europe and Asia. Both Java Man and Peking Man date back to about 300,000 years ago. In Malaysia, the earliest remains is a human skull found in the Niah Caves in Sarawak and dates back some 40,000 years. In Semenanjung (Peninsula) Malaysia, the story is even more recent and starts in Lenggong about 31,000 years ago. Incidentally, many people think of the Bujang Valley in Kedah as being one of the oldest sites, but its history only stretches back about 1,500 years. All the archaeological remains found in Lenggong have been associated with caves. The two exceptions are the Kota Tampan and Bukit Jawa sites. These two are Peninsular Malaysia's only Palaeolithic sites.
...
Wikipedia