ENTIRE stories and movies have been constructed around lighthouses -- those solitary guides for ships navigating sometimes treacherous waters.

Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence featured a powerful scene of a jilted lover and a sailboat easing past the silhouette of the Ida Lewis Lighthouse, Rhode Island.

Continents away, near Port Dickson, Cape Rachado Lighthouse has been around longer than its Rhode Island counterpart. It stoically witnessed the Battle of Cape Rachado (1606) that precipitated the end of Portuguese naval supremacy in the region.

As visitors are drawn to the migratory raptors, they return -- symbolically -- to a site where Dutch admiral Cornelis Matelieff de Jonge honoured a truce and ordered the crew of his flagship Oranje to cut off the grapple rope which entangled it to a Portuguese ship at his mercy.

Reportedly built between 1528 and 1529 by the Portuguese, this Tanjung Tuan Lighthouse helped to guide ships to the Malacca port.

Straits of Malacca is a mere 40km in width at this point. On a clear day, the outline of the Sumatran coast can be seen from the lighthouse.

Perhaps, seafarers the world over are more familiar than us with the nation's 20 lighthouses and over 300 secondary lighthouses categorised as "beacons".

Many Malaysians presented with a dazzling picture of a lighthouse are likely to ask: "Is it still functioning? Is that a relic from the past?"

For the record, all 20 lighthouses are, yes, still very much "lighted" and serving seafarers although some of the beacons have not been that enduring.

Access to the lighthouses is restricted to Marine Department technicians who maintain the generator and other functions. Security guards man the facilities around the clock.

The Marine Department has a designated post for the lighthouse caretaker, who is in charge of maintaining the facility once a month. The Aids to Navigation Fund conducts major maintenance of all lighthouses twice a year.

Ships and mariners pay a fee whenever they anchor in the country. They pay 20 sen for every tonne of their ship's tonnage and this goes towards the up-keeping of the lighthouses, beacons and buoys. A ship could pay as little as RM15 or up to tens of thousands of ringgit in fees for "Light Use".

The lighthouses at Tanjung Tuan and Bukit Melawati, Kuala Selangor, along with their stories, are bound to attract many admirers.

A body of literature based on them is certainly a distinct possibility. Local and foreign movie-makers could follow suit, with researchers sure to dredge out the tales and the facts,

Future generations will read that building these lighthouses was to aid navigation. But, surprisingly, the real reason was mainly for commerce.

Safety of passage of important cargo was a priority.

The One Fathom Bank lighthouse in Permatang Sedepa, Port Klang, has for a long time warned incoming vessels of a dangerous stretch of sand bar there.

There are nine other lighthouses in Peninsular Malaysia -- Bukit Segenting in Minyak Beku, Batu Pahat, Johor; Kuala Selangor, Bukit Jugra and Pulau Angsa in Selangor; Muka Head, Fort Cornwallis and Pulau Rimau in Penang; Pulau Undan in Malacca; and Tanjung Gelang in Pahang.

Sarawak has lighthouses at Tanjung Po, Tanjung Jerijeh, Tanjung Sirik, Tanjung Kidurong, Tanjung Lobang, Tanjung Dato and Tanjung Baram.

The lighthouse in Sabah is at Tanjung Tinagat. Another exists at Pulau Kuraman, Labuan.

They look picturesque and imposing as they stand atop hills or are located in small islands.

Southern Region Peninsular Malaysia Marine Department's head of navigation safety division Fakhrul Anwar Abu Hasan said there were plans by the Marine Department to showcase some of these lighthouses as tourist spots.

"They command a scenic view and are certainly part of our rich history."

- New Straits Times