The Prai River is not known by that name throughout its course. It only becomes known as Prai River at the confluence of the Sungai Air Hitam and Sungai Jarak, which is 21 km upriver from its estuary. The river meanders through the mangrove flatlands of Seberang Perai before discharging into the channel. As it approaches the river mouth, the Prai River widens substantially.
Though largely forgotten nowadays, it should be noted that Prai River was the original boundary between Kedah and Province Wellesley when the land was ceded to the British in 1800. As such, the term "Seberang Perai" refers to the land across the Prai River, and this same term is translated into Penang Hokkien as Koay1 Kang4 , which means "across the river". This was the northern border of Province Wellesley for the first 21 years until 1821, when the border was extended to the Muda River.
The Prai River provides freshwater, enabling settlements to appear on its banks, even before Penang Island was established in 1786. If you follow the river upstram, you will see a change in landscape, as the mangrove swamps are slowly replaced by paddy fields. Being the main river in this area means that the Prai River has a number of tributaries. Some of the smaller ones are nameless, and are simply known as Prai River as well, while the bigger ones have been named, and they include Sungai Kulim, Sungai To Sani and Sungai Lokan.
Several bridges cross the Prai River, with the biggest being the Prai River Bridge, which carries the Butterworth Outer Ring Road. Other bridges include the Tunku Abdul Rahman Bridge, the Jalan Sungai Dua Bridge and many nameless crossings, for the North-South Expressway and other roads.
A 19th-century description of the Prai River can be found in the 29 June, 1861, issue of The Straits Times1, an excerpt of which reads:
The Pry river, whose mouth is nearly opposite to the town of Pinang, is accessible to ships of burthen, as there is no bar at its mouth owing to the protection afforded from the swell of the ocean by the island. The river is about double the width of the Mudah for some distance up from its mouth. Nevertheless its sources are only a few miles inland. It is in fact a mere arm of the sea, although there are indications of a channel which formerly united it with the Mudah; when a portion, at least, of the waters of that river must have reached the sea through the channel of the Pry. The banks of this river are exceedingly monotonous, the mangrove being everywhere abundant.
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Disclaimer
Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.
Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.