Explore Kuala Lumpur

The Sultan Abdul Samad Building is a brick building with copper domes and a central clock tower facing Merdeka Square in Kuala Lumpur, built in 1894–1897 for the British colonial government offices. It later housed the country's superior courts; restored in 2026, it now holds galleries, including the Kuala Lumpur City Gallery, and cafés.

Jamek Mosque stands at the confluence of the Klang and Gombak rivers in central Kuala Lumpur. Designed by Arthur Benison Hubback in an Indo-Saracenic style and completed in 1909, it was the city's principal mosque until 1965; its domes, minarets and arcades of red brick and white plaster can be visited outside prayer times.

Independence Square is the open lawn in front of the Sultan Abdul Samad Building in Kuala Lumpur, once the cricket ground of the Selangor Club. Here the Union Flag was lowered and the Malayan flag raised at midnight on 31 August 1957; a 95-metre flagpole stands at its southern end, and the square hosts the annual Independence Day parade.

Central Market is a market hall for Malaysian handicrafts, art and souvenirs on Jalan Hang Kasturi in central Kuala Lumpur, beside the Klang River. Founded in 1888 as a wet market, it has occupied its Art Deco building since 1937; saved from demolition, the hall reopened in 1986 as a centre for crafts and culture, also called Pasar Seni.

Petaling Street is the main street of Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown, entered through Chinese-style gateways and covered by a roof along its central section. Shophouses, market stalls and food stalls line the street, selling clothing, bags and souvenirs alongside dishes such as Hokkien mee, asam laksa and curry noodles.

Sri Mahamariamman Temple is the oldest Hindu temple in Kuala Lumpur, founded in 1873 by K. Thamboosamy Pillai and on its present site on Jalan Tun H.S. Lee, at the edge of Chinatown, since 1885. The current building dates from 1968; its five-tier gopuram gate tower, 22.9 m high and completed in 1972, carries 228 sculpted figures of Hindu deities.

The National Mosque of Malaysia, completed in 1965, stands in about five hectares of gardens near the old railway station of Kuala Lumpur. Its folded concrete roof forms a 16-pointed star shaped like an open umbrella beside a 73-metre minaret, with room for 15,000 worshippers; visitors are admitted outside prayer times with a dress code.

The Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur, opened on 12 December 1998, holds more than 7,000 objects from across the Islamic world. Twelve galleries on two levels cover architecture, Qur'an manuscripts, art from India, China and the Malay world, arms, textiles, jewellery, coins, metal, wood and ceramics, and a restored 19th-century Ottoman room.

Merdeka 118 is a 118-storey skyscraper in the Merdeka Precinct of Kuala Lumpur, 678.9 metres tall with its spire, completed in 2023 for the state investment fund PNB and named after the neighbouring Stadium Merdeka. Its observation deck is not yet open, so visitors see the faceted glass tower from outside; the Park Hyatt hotel occupies its upper floors.

Kuala Lumpur Bird Park is a walk-in aviary of 20.9 acres in the Perdana Botanical Gardens in Kuala Lumpur, opened in 1991. More than 3,000 birds of about 200 species, mostly native to Malaysia, live in four zones: two free-flight areas and the Hornbill Park under a netted canopy, and a zone of separate cages and smaller aviaries.

Kuala Lumpur Tower is a 421-metre telecommunications tower on Bukit Nanas hill in central Kuala Lumpur, opened to the public in 1996. Lifts rise to the tower head, which holds an indoor observation deck at 276 metres and a revolving restaurant, while the forest around its base forms the KL Forest Eco Park with a canopy walk.

Perdana Botanical Gardens, formerly the Lake Gardens, is a 92-hectare park in central Kuala Lumpur laid out from 1888 by the colonial treasurer Alfred Venning around a lake. It contains themed gardens for orchids and hibiscus and a deer park, and the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park and Butterfly Park lie within its grounds.

The National Monument is a 15-metre bronze sculpture group by Felix de Weldon near Parliament House in Kuala Lumpur, opened in 1966. It commemorates those who died fighting the Japanese occupation in the Second World War and during the Malayan Emergency, and stands beyond a pool with fountains and bronze water lilies.

The National Museum of Malaysia, Muzium Negara, is the country's museum of history and culture on Jalan Damansara in Kuala Lumpur, near the Perdana Lake Gardens. Opened on 31 August 1963 in a building with a traditional Malay roof and modern features, it shows wedding and festival scenes, costumes, weapons, musical instruments, crafts and ceramics.

Berjaya Times Square Theme Park, formerly Cosmo's World, is an indoor amusement park on the 5th to 8th floors of the Berjaya Times Square shopping centre on Jalan Imbi. Its rides are split between Galaxy Station, with a roller coaster and other thrill rides, and Fantasy Garden for younger children, under one roof.

The Petronas Towers are a pair of 88-storey skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur City Centre, 451.9 metres tall, designed by César Pelli and opened in 1999. Visitors take a timed tour to the double-deck skybridge that links the towers on the 41st floor and up to the observation deck on the 86th floor; Suria KLCC mall and KLCC Park lie at their foot.

KLCC Park is a 20-hectare urban park at the foot of the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, designed by the Brazilian landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx. Paths, a lake with fountains, a jogging track, a children's playground and a wading pool lie among trees, some of them transplanted from the racecourse that once occupied the site.

Thean Hou Temple is a six-tiered Chinese temple dedicated to the sea goddess Mazu, on Robson Heights in Kuala Lumpur. Built by the city's Hainanese community from 1981 and opened in 1989, it is run by the Selangor and Federal Territory Hainan Association; its red pillars and tiled roofs look out over the city.

Istana Negara is the official residence of the King of Malaysia, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, on Jalan Tuanku Abdul Halim in north-western Kuala Lumpur. Opened in 2011, the palace complex covers about 98 hectares and has 22 domes; it is not open to the public, and visitors see it from outside the main gate.

KidZania Kuala Lumpur is an indoor city scaled for children in the Curve NX building in Mutiara Damansara, Petaling Jaya, opened in 2012 and run by Sim Leisure Group. Children aged 4 to 17 try more than 60 role-play jobs, from pilot and surgeon to firefighter and chef, and are paid in the park's own currency, kidZos.