Parit Raja

Parit Raja is a town in Batu Pahat District in the Malaysian state of Johor. Its main population and that of the surrounding area is Malay of Javanese descent, together with a Chinese community, and the locality is noted for a varied food culture that includes Indian Muslim, Chinese, Southern Malay and Northern Malay cooking. It works as a marketplace and commercial centre, with weekly markets such as Pasar Isnin-Khamis and Pasar Rabu that serve local farmers, hawkers and traders. The town is about 23 kilometres from Bandar Penggaram, the district capital of Batu Pahat, and 7 kilometres from Ayer Hitam, and about ten minutes from the Ayer Hitam exit of the North South Expressway. It covers 19.6 square kilometres. The word parit means trench, and many villages on the way to the town carry the name because of the flat land and many waterways.