Darvel Bay

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Satellite image of Darvel Bay, 27 July 1980 Darvel-Bay-1980-07-27-USGS.jpg
Satellite image of Darvel Bay, 27 July 1980

Darvel Bay or Lahad Datu Bay is a bight (large bay) on the east side of Sabah, Malaysia. It is the largest semi-enclosed bay on the east coast of Borneo and faces the Sulawesi Sea. Administratively, it is within Tawau Division, with Lahad Datu District on the north side, Kunak District in the middle and Semporna District to the south of the bay.

Bight (geography) Shallowly concave bend or curve in a coastline, river, or other geographical feature

In geography, a bight is a bend or curve in a coastline, river, or other geographical feature. It typically indicates a large, open bay, often only slightly receding. It is distinguished from a sound by being shallower. Traditionally, explorers defined a bight as a bay that could be sailed out of on a single tack in a square-rigged sailing vessel, regardless of the direction of the wind.

Both headland and bay are two coastal features that are related and often found on the same coastline. A bay is a body of water—usually seawater and sometimes fresh water— mostly surrounded by land, whereas a headland is surrounded by water on three sides. Headlands are characterized by breaking waves, rocky shores, intense erosion and steep sea cliffs. Bays generally have less wave activity and typically have sandy beaches. Headlands and bays form on discordant coastlines, where the land consists of bands of rock of alternating resistance that run perpendicular to the coast.

Sabah State of Malaysia

Sabah is a state of Malaysia located on the northern portion of Borneo Island. Sabah has land borders with the Malaysian state of Sarawak to the southwest and Indonesia's Kalimantan region to the south. The Federal Territory of Labuan is an island just off the Sabah coast. Sabah shares maritime borders with Vietnam to the west and the Philippines to the north and east. Kota Kinabalu is the state capital city, the economic centre of the state and the seat of the Sabah state government. Other major towns in Sabah include Sandakan and Tawau. As of the 2015 census in Malaysia, the state's population is 3,543,500. Sabah has an equatorial climate with tropical rainforests and abundant animal and plant species. The state has long mountain ranges on the west side which form part of the Crocker Range National Park. Kinabatangan River, second longest river in Malaysia runs through Sabah and Mount Kinabalu is the highest point of Sabah as well as of Malaysia.

Contents

Geography

Large parts of the shore of Darval Bay are mangrove swamps. [1] Within the bay there are numerous islands, the largest, Timbun Mata Island, is located near the southern shore.

History

The area around Darvel Bay has been inhabited for over 20,000 years. [2] The limestone caves on the mainland and on the islands were used for prehistoric burials. [2]

Darvel Bay was a traditional haunt for pirates up to the end of the 19th century. [3] Among the most famous pirates was Datu Kudunding. [4] The British operated the Darvel Bay Tobacco Plantations Ltd, in Lahad Datu District which was immortalized in the documentary film Urban Bioscope Expedition through Borneo by H. M. Lomas. [5]

Notes

  1. ↑ United States Navy Publication 163, Chapter 10, prepared by the National Imagery and Mapping Agency
  2. 1 2 Hutton, Wendy (1993) East Malaysia and Brunei Passport Books, Lincolnwood, Illinois, p.77, ISBN   0-8442-9890-5
  3. ↑ Tregonning, K. G. (1965) A History of Modern Sabah (North Borneo, 1881–1963) (2nd ed.) published for the University of Singapore by the University of Malaya Press, Singapore, p.191 OCLC 410956
  4. ↑ Black, Ian (1983) A Gambling Style of Government: The Establishment of the Chartered Company's rule in Sabah, 1878–1915 Oxford University Press, Kuala Lumpur, p.23, ISBN   0-19-582535-7
  5. ↑ Herbert, Stephen (2000) A History of Early Film Routledge, London, p.180-181, ISBN   0-415-21152-2

Further reading

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

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Coordinates: 4°48′N118°39′E / 4.800°N 118.650°E / 4.800; 118.650

Geographic coordinate system Coordinate system

A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.


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