Isthmus of Kra

Kra, Isthmus of

(krä), narrow neck of the Malay Peninsula, c.40 mi (60 km) wide, SW Thailand, between the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Thailand. It has long been the proposed site of a ship canal that would bypass the congested Straits of Malacca.

Kra, Isthmus of

an isthmus in Southeast Asia, in southern Thailand, connecting the Malay Peninsula to the mainland. Width, 40–75 km. The terrain consists of hills and low mountains (maximum altitude, 500 m) covered with tropical rain forests. Construction of a canal through the isthmus might shorten the route from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean by about 1,500 km.