Sarawak Chamber is a gigantic cave chamber in the Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak. It is believed to be the largest known underground chamber in the world.
The Sarawak Chamber is located within Gua Nasib Bagus (Good Luck Cave). It was only discovered in 1981, by three British cave explorers, Andy Eavis, Dave Checkley and Tony White, in an expedition lead by another Briton, Ben Lyon. The Sarawak Chamber was discovered by chance when the spelunkers found that even with their powerful torch, they were unable to illuminate the other end of the cavern.
Sarawak Chamber is measured to be three times the size of the Big Room in Carlsbad Caverns National Park, New Mexico, which until its discovery, had held the record for being the biggest underground chamber in the world. Sarawak Chamber measures 700 meters (2,300 feet) in length, 400 meters (1,300 feet) wide, and at least 70 meters (230 feet) high.
The Sarawak Chamber was created by an uplift in the soil which occured some 2-5 million years ago. Erosion of the limestone by heavy rainfall carved out the cave that is visible today.
Sarawak tourism literature boasts that the chamber can accommodate 40 Boeing 747's, or 10 parked nose-to-tail. Alas, the Sarawak Chamber is not open to the general tourists. Those who are fit and experienced enough at caving can register to book a guide at the park headquarters for an adventure spelunking to the Sarawak Chamber, at a cost of RM500 per guide, taking a maximum of 5 cavers.
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About this website
Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.
While I try my best to provide you information as accurate as I can get it to be, I do apologize for any errors and for outdated information which I am unaware. Nevertheless, I hope that what I have described here will be useful to you.