The Niah Caves are a complex of underground caverns within a limestone hill that is the northern outlier of the Gunong Subis,a limestone massif situated on the sub-coastal sandy plain of northern Sarawak (Wilford, 1964; Fig. 1). The Great Cave that cuts through the Niah hill measures some ten hectares in floor area and 75 metres in height. There is a single main entrance on the western side (the West Mouth), and the cavern then splits into a series of caves and channels, the main entrances on the eastern and southern sides being (clockwise) Lobang Tulang, Lobang Angus, Gan Kira, and Tahi Menimbum. The caves are the home to huge populations of bats and swiftlets, both ofwhich have long been an important source of income for local people; the bat guano is an excellent manure, and the swiftlets’ nests are sold for high pricesas they are highly prized for Chinese birds’ nest soup.
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