Niah’s caves have provided ground-breaking insights into human life on Borneo way back when the island was still connected to mainland Southeast Asia. In 1958 archaeologists led by Tom Harrisson discovered the 40,000-year-old skull of an anatomically modern human, while rock paintings and several small canoe-like coffins (‘death ships’) indicate that the site was used as a burial ground much more recently. The caves also accommodate a staggering number of bats and are an important nesting site for swiftlets.