Pahang River

From the upper slopes of the Titiwangsa Mountains at Cameron Highlands, the Jelai River flows in a southeasterly direction, passing through Padang Tengku and Kuala Lipis before merging with the Tembeling River. The Tembeling River, which begins at Pahang and the Terengganu state border at Ulu Tembeling, flows in a southwesterly direction passing through Kuala Tahan. The Pahang River flows in a southerly direction passing through Jerantut Feri, Kuala Krau, Kerdau and Temerloh. At Mengkarak, the river turns to the northeast, passing through Chenor and then turning east at Lubuk Paku and Lepar into the floodplain of Paloh Hinai, Pekan and Kuala Pahang before draining into the South China Sea.

From the source to the mouth, the Pahang River basin comprises almost all the districts in Pahang, including Cameron Highlands, Lipis, Jerantut, Temerloh, Bera, Maran and Pekan. The Lipis River, a tributary of the Jelai River, begins at the Pahang and Perak state border in Ulu Sungai, Raub district and ends at the confluence of Jelai River and Lipis River at Kuala Lipis. Semantan River, a tributary of the Pahang River begins in Bentong district and ends at the confluence of the Pahang River and Semantan River at Kuala Semantan. The Triang River and Bera River, tributaries of the Pahang River, begin at the Jelebu and Jempol districts of Negeri Sembilan state while the Lepar River, another tributary of the Pahang River, passing through Kuantan district in the east before ending at the confluence of the Pahang River and Lepar River at Paloh Hinai.

The only district in Pahang that does not have a tributary of the Pahang River or have the Pahang River flowing through it is Rompin.

The banks of the Pahang River were settled as early as 1400 by warriors and seafarers from around Maritime Southeast Asia including places such as Aceh, Riau, Palembang and Sulawesi. The earliest historical records of the Pahang River, the riverine inhabitants or the people of Pahang were found in the Malay Annals and Hikayat Abdullah.

During the Pleistocene epoch or Mesolithic period about 10,000 years ago, there was a 5 degrees celsius drop in the global temperature. At mountaintops, snow accumulated as ice caps and glaciers (including Mount Kinabalu), thus disrupting the global hydrological cycle. Due to lack of water discharge into the sea, the sea level was 120 meters lower than it is today. The South China Sea dried up, exposing the Sunda Shelf and previous deep trenches became huge ancient rivers called the North Sunda River.

Mainland Asia, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra and Java became connected to Borneo via the landbridge of exposed Sunda Shelf. The North Sunda River provided vital connection to the Mekong River in Vietnam and the Chao Phraya River in Thailand to the north, the Baram and Rajang rivers in Sarawak to the east and the Pahang River and Rompin River to the west of the massive land mass. Freshwater catfishes from those rivers migrated and mated to exchange their genetic materials about 10,000 years ago. Thus, after the Holocene, when the temperature increased, a substantial amount of the ice that had accumulated melted, increasing sea levels, inundating the landbridges and the Sunda River, thus isolating the catfish populations. However, their genetic motives are still in the DNA as an evidence of the previous connections of the Pahang River to other isolated rivers in Indochina and Borneo.

Jerantut is 15 km from the confluence of the Jelai River and the Tembeling River. Temerloh is situated on the confluence between the Semantan River and Pahang River. The town of Pekan, which is Pahang's royal town, is situated on the southern bank of the river, near the river mouth.

There are seven bridges built across the river. The bridges are the Abu Bakar Bridge in Pekan, the Paloh Hinai bridge of Tun Razak Highway in Paloh Hinai, the Chenor Bridge in Chenor, the new Temerloh Bridge in Temerloh, the Semantan Bridge of East Coast Expressway in Sanggang, the Sultan Ahmad Shah Bridge in Kuala Krau and the Sultan Abdullah Bridge in Jerantut Feri.

Bera is the only district on the Pahang River watershed that has no bridge crossing the river.

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  Pahang River near Chenor.
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  A new concrete bridge over the Pahang River.
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  Damaged Temerloh bridge during 1971/72 flood.
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  Steel bridge constructed in 1973 near Temerloh.
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  Raft-house on Sungei Pahang near Temerloh town.
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  The confluence of Sungei Semantan on the right near Pekan Sari Temerloh.

• Malaysia
• Pahang
• Prehistoric Malaysia
• Pekan District
• Muar River
• Taman Negara National Park
• Malay Peninsula
• Titiwangsa Mountains

• Up close with Sungai Pahang.
• Mat Kilau, the Malay warrior.
• Unexplored Corner of Pahang. Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.
• Bridges over Sungai Pahang.
• New Species from Sungai Pahang.
• Fish of Sungai Akah.
• Sungei Jeli.
• Pahang ICT.
• "sungei Palaeoecology of Pahang.
• TC Whitmore reference on Pahang.
• Pahang Experts.
• Pahang Overview.
• Pahang peatswamp.
• Pahang interest.
• Melioidosis in Pahang.
• Caves in Pahang.
• Forest Collectors.
• Human Development.