According to one interpretation, Langkawi means island of the reddish-brown eagle, a Brahminy kite in colloquial Malay.

[6] The Malay word for eagle is helang (colloquially shortened to lang), and kawi is a red stone used as a chalk to mark goods.

The name Langkawi is also thought to be related to Langkasuka, an old kingdom believed to have links with Kedah.

Legend tells of a great snake ular besar, the custodian of the Langkawi Islands, to which a new king of Kedah must sacrifice a virgin daughter whenever he ascended the throne, or when war was declared with another state.

When the Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He visited the region, the island was marked as 龍牙交椅, Lóngyájiāoyǐ, on his map.

In 1691, the French general Augustin de Beaulieu recorded going to the island of "Lancahui" (Langkawi) to buy pepper,[11] and de Beaulieu was required to obtain a license from Kedah's heir apparent in Perlis before the penghulu or chief of Langkawi would sell pepper to him.

According to local legend, in the late 18th century, a woman named Mahsuri was wrongfully accused of adultery and put to death.

[15] Not long after Mahsuri's death, in 1821, the Siamese army invaded Kedah and attacked Langkawi.

During the World War II, Siam took control briefly as British Malaya fell to the Japanese.

Langkawi was a haven for pirates who attacked junks in the northern part of the Strait of Malacca.

In a series of operations, between December 1945 and March 1946, the British cleared the pirates' land bases on Langkawi and Tarutao.

Langkawi remained a quiet backwater until 1986, when Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad transformed it into a major tourist resort, helping to plan many of the islands' buildings himself.

The main island is about 25 kilometres (16 mi) from north to south and slightly more from east to west.

[26] Geologically, all these rocks are in the Western Belt of Peninsular Malaysia, which is thought to be part of the Shan–Thai terrane.

In 2014, UNESCO issued a "yellow card" warning that the park could lose its status as a geopark.

An inclined lift called SkyGlide that would take visitors from the top station to the Sky Bridge was completed in late 2015.

[36] Bats, crocodiles, eagles, kingfishers, monitor lizards, macaques, otters, snakes and tree crabs are some of the most commonly found wildlife in the park.

The hand crafted featured stone wall is 200 meters from Langkawi International Airport .