At Sungai Menyala, the sun still tells the time
PORT DICKSON: Long before phones, watches and digital clocks, people looked to the sun to work out the time.
Today, at Sungai Menyala Forest Reserve in Port Dickson, visitors can still do exactly that, thanks to a large sundial built at the site’s Astronomy Square.
The sundial uses the movement of sunlight and shadow to indicate the time, offering visitors a simple, hands-on introduction to astronomy in an appropriately natural setting.
Senior forest ranger Ahmad Syafiq Abdul Aziz said the structure was added in 2023 when the area was being developed as a place for astronomy-related activities.
The forest had already been identified as a useful site for stargazing because it is relatively sheltered from the light pollution of Port Dickson town and nearby areas.
“We looked for an additional astronomy-related feature that visitors could interact with during the day, which led to the construction of the sundial,” Ahmad Syafiq told Bernama.
A sundial works through a remarkably simple principle: a raised pointer, known as a “gnomon”, casts a shadow as the sun moves across the sky, with the position of that shadow indicating the time.
At Sungai Menyala, the idea has been scaled up. The horizontal sundial includes a larger structure and marked lines across an area roughly 2m in diameter, allowing visitors to follow the shadow more clearly.
Ahmad Syafiq said its positioning had to take into account the site itself, as well as the movement of the sun throughout the day. The installation underwent several verification processes before being opened to visitors.
The site is now used by astronomy enthusiasts as well as students studying “falak”, or Islamic astronomy, including groups from Universiti Malaya and Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia.
For them, the sundial provides a chance to move beyond diagrams and theory and see how the system behaves outdoors under changing light and weather conditions.
For casual visitors, its appeal is much simpler: stand beside it, watch the shadow fall and see an ancient method of timekeeping work in real life.
The Astronomy Square sits within PD Forest Sungai Menyala, a 1,280-ha lowland dipterocarp forest where visitors can combine a look at the sundial with other outdoor activities.
The area offers jungle trekking, cycling, night walks, camping and stargazing, while its darker surroundings make it particularly suited to observing the night sky.
More than 13,000 people visited the forest last year, while nearly 8,000 arrivals were recorded between January and July this year.
The sundial has also earned a Malaysia Book of Records entry as the largest horizontal sundial within a permanent forest reserve, while the Astronomy Square received separate recognition in 2023.
While these records may appeal to some visitors, the more memorable part of the experience is arguably much less complicated.
The sundial asks you to put away your screen for a moment, and watch something people have been observing for thousands of years: sunlight moving slowly across the ground as a way to tell time.
