Isthmus of Kra

Kra Isthmus

Location of Kra Isthmus

Kra Isthmus landscape. The mountain in the background is part of the Tenasserim chain.

The Kra Isthmus is the narrow land bridge which connects the Malay Peninsula with the mainland of Asia.

Geography

The east part of the landbridge belongs to Thailand, while the west part belongs to the Tanintharyi division of Myanmar. To the west of the Isthmus is the Andaman Sea, and to the east is the Gulf of Thailand.

The narrowest part between the estuary of the Kra River and the bay of Sawi near the city Chumphon has a width of 44 km, and has a maximum altitude of 75 m above sea level. The Isthmus is named after the town Kra Buri, in the Ranong province of Thailand, which is located at the west side of the narrowest part.

The Isthmus of Kra marks the boundary between two sections of the central cordillera, the mountain chain which runs from Tibet through all of the Malay peninsula. The southern part is called the Phuket chain, which is a continuation of the greater Tenasserim range, which extends northwards for over 400 km beyond the Three Pagodas Pass.

Kra Canal

The Thai Canal (formerly known as Kra Canal) is a proposed canal from the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea via southern Thailand.

In popular culture

• In the Yoko Tsuno graphic novel Le Canon de Kra, the isthmus featured as the site for a large railway cannon.

See also

• Malaccamax
• Isthmus of Panama
• Nicaraguan Canal
• Sunda Strait
• Lombok Strait
• Makassar Strait

References

Further reading

• Abdullah MT. 2003. Biogeography and variation of Cynopterus brachyotis in Southeast Asia. PhD thesis. The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia.
• Corbet, GB, Hill JE. 1992. The mammals of the Indomalayan region: a systematic review. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
• Hall LS, Gordon G. Grigg, Craig Moritz, Besar Ketol, Isa Sait, Wahab Marni and M.T. Abdullah. 2004. Biogeography of fruit bats in Southeast Asia. Sarawak Museum Journal LX(81):191-284.
• Wilson DE, Reeder DM. 2005. Mammal species of the world. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington DC.