Historical Places in Malaysia

A timber reconstruction of the palace of Sultan Mansur Shah, built in 1985 from the description in the Malay Annals, since nothing of the original survived the Portuguese. That is worth knowing before you go: this is a careful reconstruction rather than a surviving building. Inside is the best museum in Melaka on the sultanate period, with the court, the costume and the trade laid out room by room. It sits at the foot of St Paul's Hill.

The largest Chinese cemetery outside China, with over twelve thousand graves on a hill east of the centre, some dating to the Ming period. The land was granted in the fifteenth century when Sultan Mansur Shah married a Chinese princess, which is the origin story locals tell, and the Sam Po Kong temple and the Hang Li Poh well sit at its foot. It is a quiet walk rather than a monument, and it is used for exercise by residents at dawn.

The oldest Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur, founded in 1873 and rebuilt on Jalan Tun H S Lee in Chinatown, and the only entry on this page that is not in Melaka or George Town. The five-tiered gopuram over the entrance carries 228 idols. It is the starting point of the Thaipusam procession that carries the silver chariot to Batu Caves. Shoes come off at the door and there is a small charge to mind them.

What is left of the Portuguese fortress of 1511 is a single gate, the Porta de Santiago, and it survives only because Stamford Raffles intervened when the British were demolishing the rest in 1807. That is the whole of it, so treat it as a five minute stop rather than a site: the walk up St Paul's Hill behind it is the real visit. The name is used loosely in Melaka, including by a theme park some distance away that is unrelated.

The oldest Anglican church in Southeast Asia, consecrated in 1818 and built by convict labour on Farquhar Street in George Town. It is a plain Georgian building with a portico and a spire, restored in 2011 after decades of decline, and it is still a working parish rather than a monument. The memorial canopy in the churchyard commemorates Francis Light, who founded the settlement. It is a short walk from Fort Cornwallis.

The oldest Chinese temple in George Town, built around 1728 by the first Hokkien and Cantonese settlers and dedicated to the goddess of mercy. It is small, dark and constantly busy, which is the point: this is a working neighbourhood temple rather than a set piece, with incense, fortune sticks and street food vendors outside. It sits on Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling, on the street where a mosque, a Hindu temple and a church stand within a few hundred metres.

Built by the Portuguese in 1521 as Our Lady of the Hill and now roofless, on the top of St Paul's Hill above A Famosa. It is generally reckoned the oldest church building in Southeast Asia. Francis Xavier was buried here briefly before being moved to Goa, and his open grave is still in the floor. Dutch tombstones line the walls. Go up the steps from the Porta de Santiago and come down the other side to the museum complex.

The oldest functioning Chinese temple in Malaysia, founded in 1645 on Jalan Tokong, and built with materials and craftsmen brought from China. It serves all three Chinese doctrines, Taoism, Confucianism and Buddhism, in one compound. The street it stands on is called Harmony Street because a mosque and a Hindu temple sit along the same short stretch, which is the single best illustration of Melaka's history on the ground.

The red Dutch church on the town square, completed in 1753 and the oldest functioning Protestant church in Malaysia. The red paint is British, applied in 1911; the Dutch built it in white. Inside, the ceiling beams are single timbers and the floor carries Dutch and Armenian tombstones. It is still in use for services. The square around it, with the clock tower and the fountain, is the most photographed spot in the country.

A Chinese temple of 1850 at Sungai Kluang, near the airport, built for the deity Chor Soo Kong and known for the pit vipers that were once said to arrive of their own accord. Be clear about what it is now: the snakes on the altars are kept, and there is a separate paid enclosure where photographs are taken with handled snakes. If that is not something you want to support, the temple itself is free to visit and the altars can be seen without it.

The largest surviving fort in Malaysia, on the point where Francis Light landed in 1786, and the reason George Town exists where it does. The star-shaped walls are brick, rebuilt by convict labour from 1804, and enclose a chapel, a powder magazine and Seri Rambai, a bronze cannon of 1603 given by the Dutch to Johor. It never saw a battle. Restoration work has been running for several years, so parts may be fenced.