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this study, an initiative has been taken to characterize soil physical properties of stable and failed soil slopes along the Ranau-Tambunan road in Sabah. A total of 26 samples consisting of 10 samples from stable slopes and another 16 samples from failed soil slopes were collected. Basic physical soil tests that were performed were particle size distribution, liquid limit, plastic limit and plasticity index. The Mann-Whitney test was used to determine the association between landslides and the physical properties of both slope groups. In addition, mean rank of physical properties for both slope groups were also computed. Based on the test, the particle size distribution, liquid and plasticity index for both groups were indicated as significantly associated with landslides with p values of 0.0305, 0.009 and 0.040 respectively. The plastic limit (p=0.667), however, did not show significant association with landslide occurrences. In terms of mean rank, failed slopes have higher value than stable slopes for fine grain materials comprising of silt and clay (15.94 vs 9.60), liquid limit (16.50 vs 8.70), plastic limit (14.03 vs 12.65) and plasticity index (16.69 vs 8.40). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]