World’s Longest Water Slide Runs Through the Malaysian Jungle for 4 Minutes

This new slide, which is now in the works at Escape Theme Park in Teluk Bahang, in the state of Penang, Malaysia has a starting point of 780 meters (2,559 feet) above sea level and it will be 1,140 meters (3,740 feet) long, according to The Star.

Sim Choo Kheng, chief escape officer of Escape Theme Park, told reporters that 705 meters of the slide has already been completed and that they are now working towards adding the remaining 435 meters, which when finished, would make the water theme park home of the longest slide the world has ever seen.

“It is expected to be the longest in the world, longer than the water slide in New Jersey, USA, which is 602m long,” he said, New Straits Times reported. “It can go into the Guinness Book of Records.”

With a height like this, it’s hard to imagine how people would go up the slide to ride it. Fortunately, the theme park came up with a solution by adding a cable car that takes customers to the top without having to climb several flights of stairs.

“As part of our Phase 3 development, a chairlift (cable car) is also being built to transport customers from the foot of the hill to the top,” Sim said via The Star. “It will also serve as a transport vessel for Hill Rider and Tubby Racer, two new attractions that will open together with the water slide.”

Building the slide, however, proved to be quite difficult as the crew had to transport all the materials manually to the hilltop to preserve the surrounding natural habitat, said Sim.

“To build a slide this long would require building a tower, about the height of a 20-storey apartment, which is not only cost prohibitive but also a disaster aesthetically,” he added. “So we decided to use the highest point of our forested land with an elevation of 70m as the launch tower.”

Featured image screenshot via Facebook / Escape Theme Park, Penang