The name of the island comes from the Thai 'Pang Ko', which means Beautiful Island. It actually concerns a group of islands with Pangkor as its main island, and next to that a trio of smaller islands: Pangkor Laut, Pulau Mentagor en Pulau Giam. Pangkor Laut is the best known of these, because of the idyllic resort you can find on this small island (with similar name; Pangkor Laut Resort). Pangkor is a mountainous island; the highest point is at 1216 meters (Pangkor Hill). Since the main island consists of just mountains, the roads are lying in a circle around the island.