Gunung Mulu at Miri Sarawak

GUNUNG MULU NATIONAL PARK MIRI SARAWAK

Deer Cave is located near Miri, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo and is a show cave attraction of Gunung Mulu National Park. It was surveyed in 1961 by G.E. Wilford, of the Malaysian Geological Survey, who predicted that Mulu would yield many more caves in the future (Wilford, 1964). The cave, which is also known as Gua Payau or Gua Rusa by the local Penan and Berawan people, is said to have received its name because of the deer that come to the cave to lick salt-bearing rocks (Tsen, 1993) and shelter themselves.
The cave was surveyed for the first time in the year 1978, producing measurements of 174 m wide and 122 m high in one section that passed through the mountain for a distance of one kilometer. Subsequently a next survey increased the acknowledged passage length to 4.1 kilometers and connected Lang Cave, another show cave within the park, to the Deer Cave System. This survey made in 2009 by the Hoffman Institute Of Western Kentucky University revealed the maximum cross sectional area to be in the large southern passage. This was documented at 169 m wide with a ceiling height of 125 m. The northern passage registered the greatest ceiling height at 148m with a cross sectional width of 142 m. The main entrance of Deer Cave was measured at 146 m.

                                                                       
Gunung Mulu National Park near Miri, Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, is a UNESCO World Herritage Site that encompasses caves and crust formations in a mountanious equatorial rainforest setting. The park is famous for its caves and the expeditions that have been mounted to explore them and their surrounding rainforest, most notably the Royal Geographical  Expedition of 1977–1978, which saw over 100 scientists in the field for 15 months. This initiated a series of over 20 expeditions now drawn together as the Mulu Caves Project.
The national park is named after Mount Mulu, the second highest mountain in Sarawak.


Gunung Mulu National Park is famous for its limestone crust formations. Features include enormous caves, vast cave networks, rock pinnacles, cliffs and gorges. Mount Mula is a sandstone mountain rising to 2,376 m (7,795 ft).
Gunung Mulu National Park has the largest known natural chamber or room - Sarawak Chamber, found in Gua Nasib Bagus. It is 2,300 feet (700 m) long, 1,300 feet (396 m) wide and at least 230 feet (70 m) high. It has been said that the chamber is so big that it could accommodate about 40 Boeing 747s, without overlapping their wings. The nearby Deer Cave was, for many years, considered the largest single cave passage in the world.


Other notable caves in this area are Benarat Cavern, Wind Cave, and Clearwater cave; which contains parts one of the world's largest underground river systems and is believed to be the largest cave in the world by volume at 30,347,540 m³.
Mulu's limestones belong to the Melinau Formation and their age is between 17 and 40 million years (Late Eocene to Early Miocene).
Stratigraphically below the limestones, and forming the highest peaks in the south east sector of the Park including Gunung Mulu, lies the Mulu Formation (shales and sandstones). The age of these rocks is between 40 and 90 million years (Late Cretaceous to Late Eocene).