Merapoh 2013 - more cave drawings, Gua Lima area

At the end of Sept 2013 I was back in Merapoh. We spent a couple of days caving in the Gua Lima area, which is just outside Kpg Merapoh. We found a few more caves with black drawings on the walls. They are similar to those at Gua Badak in Lenggong, Perak, although those have more recognisable objects such as people, animals, bicycles, trees etc.

It is not known if the Merapoh drawings are the same age as the Lenggong ones, but the latter have deteriorated over the years and are now really faded. It is thought the drawings may have been made by the local orang asli.

The first ones are on the wall of a long rock shelter, Gua Gajah Gosok, this is near a cave we named as Gua Empat Tingkat.

Some of the drawings look like people -

Various human like shapes can be seen as well as one set of squares -

There were also sign of elephants having rubber along the centre hanging rock -

From here we moved onto another hill in the area

and we named the cave Gua Jambatan Batu from this bridge -

There were drawings in the upper section

The one on the top right looks like the sun

One the next 2, the left one looks like a deer from outer space, the one on the right Habli said is a tiger eating a person!

The cave has some nice formations -

 and a few bats -

One wall was blackened from soot from fires. Outside I found a piece of pottery

A short, but interesting cave.

Another cave in the area with drawings. This is Gua Lima, aka Gua Terowong Felcra. I first visited this cave in 1996 but missed the drawings then as they are on the upper level above the entrance. I also came back in Sept 2013 and again didn't know the drawings were there.

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See Feb 2013 blog of Gua Seribu Cerita for more cave drawings.

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October 16 2013, Noel has now blogged about this rock art on his site, SEAArch, and put forward interesting suggestions. See Rock Art from Merapoh, Pahang.

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Blog on Batek orang asli who may have done the drawings

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© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission