The Titiwangsa Mountains (Malay: Banjaran Titiwangsa; بنجرن تيتيوڠسا), also known as "Banjaran Besar" (Main Range) by locals, are the main mountain range that forms the backbone of the Malay Peninsula. The northern section of the range is in Southern Thailand, where it is known as Sankalakhiri Range (Thai: เทือกเขาสันกาลาคีรี, IPA: [sǎn.kaːlaːkʰiːriː]).
The range acts as a natural divider, dividing Peninsular Malaysia, as well as southernmost Thailand, into East and West Coast regions. The length of mountain range is about 480 km from north to south.
The Malay Peninsula or (Malay: Semenanjung Tanah Melayu, Thai: คาบสมุทรมลายู) is a peninsula in Southeast Asia. The land mass runs approximately north-south and, at its terminus, is the southernmost point of the Asian mainland. The area contains the southernmost tip of Myanmar, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, and Southern Thailand.
The Titiwangsa Mountains are part of the Tenasserim Hills system, and form the backbone of the Peninsula. They form the southernmost section of the central cordillera which runs from Tibet through the Kra Isthmus (the Peninsula's narrowest point) into the Malay peninsula. The Strait of Malacca separates the Malay Peninsula from the Indonesian island of Sumatra while the south coast is separated from the island of Singapore by the Straits of Johor.
The Malay term Tanah Melayu (literally: 'The Malay Land') is generally used by the Malays and occasionally used in political discourse to describe uniting all ethnic Malay people on the peninsula under one Malay nation, although this ambition was largely realised with the creation of Malaysia.[citation needed]