Borneo | History, Map, Population, People, & Facts | Britannica

Land

Borneo lies astride the Equator. It has a length of 830 miles (1,336 km) from northeast to southwest and a maximum breadth of 600 miles (960 km). The island is largely mountainous, although there are extensive lowlands, especially in Central Kalimantan and Sarawak, that are often swampy along the coasts. A long series of mountain ranges extend southwest across the island from Mount Kinabalu in the far northeast, which, at an elevation of 13,455 feet (4,101 metres), is the island’s greatest height and is also the tallest peak in Malaysia. Ranges in the central spine include the Crocker, the Nieuwenhuis, and the Muller mountains. The Kapuas Hulu Mountains branch westward from the central core along the border between Sarawak and West Kalimantan, and a separate and discontinuous series of ranges parallel the east and southeast coasts in East and South Kalimantan.

A large part of Borneo is drained by navigable rivers, which represent the principal and often the only lifelines of trade and commerce. The main rivers of Kalimantan are the Kapuas in the west and the Mahakam in the east. Farther north, as the island narrows, few rivers are navigable for more than 100 miles (160 km), often much less, a condition largely responsible for the northern interior of Borneo remaining, until recently, one of the least-known parts of the world. The main river of East Malaysia is the Rajang in Sarawak.

Britannica Quiz Beautiful Borneo

Borneo’s climate is equatorial—hot and humid with a fairly distinct division into two seasons, consisting of a wet monsoonal period (landas) between October and March and a relatively drier, calmer period of summer (tedoh) for the rest of the year. The average annual rainfall is about 150 inches (3,800 mm).

Borneo is largely covered in dense rainforest, and both the floral and the faunal populations of the island are extremely varied. There are extensive stands of teak, oak, conifers, and hardwoods of the Dipterocarpaceae family (including members the commercially valuable genus Shorea). The forests are also noted for their epiphytes and for the monster flower (Rafflesia arnoldii), the largest flower in the world. Mammals endemic to the island include the Bornean clouded leopard (Neofelis diardi) and the proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus). Other notable animals include orangutans, gibbons, and elephants, but the Sumatran rhinoceros is now extinct there. There are also a great many species of birds, insects, and fish.

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