Batu Caves

Batu Caves are a set of limestone caves in Gombak, Selangor, Malaysia, about 13 kilometers north of Kuala Lumpur, hollowed out of a limestone mogote, or steep isolated hill, that stands 325 meters tall. The limestone itself formed more than 400 million years ago, while the caves inside it began forming much later, estimated at somewhere between the late Cretaceous and early Tertiary, roughly 60 to 120 million years ago, as water percolating through the surface dissolved the rock underground. The system includes 20 recognized caves, among them four large interconnected chambers, and the damp, wet conditions during their formation produced abundant speleothems, stalactites, stalagmites, flowstones, cave pearls and scalloped rock surfaces. This entity documents Batu Caves specifically as a geological formation, a limestone cave system shaped by chemical dissolution of ancient carbonate rock.