A GEOTOURISTIC ITINERARY: A PROPOSAL FOR GEOTOURISM AND ARCHAEOTOURISM DEVELOPMENT OF LENGGONG VALLEY, PERAK, MALAYSIA

Abstract

The Archaeological Heritage of Lenggong Valley has a high potential to be developed as geotourism and archaeotourism destination. The diversity in geology and geomorphology of the area represent scientific, cultural, aesthetic as well as recreational values and together define the geodiversity of this area. This paper proposes a basic geotouristic itinerary connects a series of impressive geosites distributed in Lenggong Valley which can explain the high potential interest of the area in geotourism and archaeotourism terms. In order to enhance and highlight their importance to the geological and archaeological heritage, the location, accessibility, important geological-scientific features or historical-cultural interest, related activities as well as available facilities was described. The motivation for establishing this itinerary mostly resides in the great scientific and cultural interest of the geosites that will hopefully facilitate their conservation and the development of geo-archaeotourism to continuously attract a large number of visitors year by year. The itinerary can be used for teaching purposes at different educational levels, geotourists and geopark guides and for university courses. In addition, non-geologists may follow the itinerary guided by expert volunteers to discover the geological and archaeological heritage of the area.

Keywords

• geotourism
• archaeotourism
• geotouristic itinerary
• geo-archaeotourism development
• Archaeological Heritage of Lenggong Valley