This image shows part of the Balik Pulau topographic sheet (28c Series L8010) dated 1977 and based on a survey carried out in 1969. The scale of the map is 1:25,000 (1 mm to 25 meters). The map was georeferenced using latitiude and longitude marks in the margins (not shown). The horizontal and vertical black line show the national grid.

This map has been removed for legal reasons. Please contact the author for details.

The legend in the lower right corner of the map shows elevations and some land uses, such as marshes, intertidal mud and sand, rice fields, drains and embankments, houses, and the airport. Some vegetation is shown specifically, but the second growth forest is not shown, as it would obscure most of the features on the map, especially contour lines.

The map shows the coastal lowlands extending from the northeast to the southwest. To the north and west are the granite hills, penetrated in places by river valleys. Most prominent of the rivers is the lower Sungai Ara where most of the rice fields are located. Drainage channels are shown near the rice fields. Embankments are shown along the landward side of the marshes lining the coast. An intertidal zone of mud- and sand-flats is shown on the seaward side of the marshes. The lobes of the flats were cut by small channels. In the southeast, a hilly region rises to 210 meters. Just north of the airport runway an outlier of the granite hills, Bukit Gedong, rises to 240 meters.

In 1969, wide-bodied aircraft were not yet in commercial use, thus the short runway of this airport (2.2 km) was able to handle many types of aircraft in use at the time, though probably not the Boeing 707.

In 1969, Bayan Lepas was known as a low-lying plain often covered in water with a few simple roads winding through tiny villages containing small shops, schools, mosques, temples, and clinics. Above the plain to the north and west rose rounded granite hills clothed in second-growth forest. The scene was rural: there was no urban development and most buildings were constructed of wood.

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