Batu Caves

The Batu Caves are located just 13 km north of Kuala Lumpur Malaysia, Gombak district and is a popular destinations for tourists and Hindu pilgrims. The Batu Caves is a limestone hill with several caves and temples.

The caves are estimated to be 400 million years old and were used for different purposes. The caves were used as shelter by the indigenous Temuan people, as a source for the fertile guano by the Chinese in the 19th century. In 1890 the Indian trader K. Thamboosamy Pillai visited the caves and decided to resurrect a temple inside a cave and a statue of Sri Subramania Swamy in another (this is now named the Temple or Cathedral Cave).

There are three main caves and a few smaller ones, located about 100m above the ground:

• Temple Cave. This is the biggest and most famous one. The ceiling is a massive 100m high. To reach it you need to climb 272 concrete steps.
• Art Gallery Cave and the Museum Cave are located at the foot of the hill and are filled with Hindu paintings and statues.
• Ramayana Cave. Here you can find the famous Ramayana story depicted at the walls of the cave.

New temples and statues are recently constructed. At the site you can find the largest statue in the world (42.7meter high) of Lord Muruga which was build in 2006. Also on the way to the Ramayana cave you will see the statue and a temple devoted of Hanuman. The temple was opened in 2001.

At the smaller caves away from the main routes there are still undeveloped caves with some unique flora and fauna, especially bats of course and monkeys.

Each year at the Tamil month of Thai (around January, early February) the Thaipusam festival is celebrated here, not only by Hindu from Malaysia but from countries as far away as Australia and India. Over a million pilgrims will visit the festival.