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Melaka in Three Tenses

Ic. 1400 to 1957

Past tense

Sultans, spice fleets and the empires that came for them.

Melaka was founded around 1400 and spent the next five and a half centuries being fought over. These essays follow the sultans, traders, priests and governors who passed through, and the stones they left standing.

  1. 2 min read

    Why the old town is red

    The Stadthuys, Christ Church and the clock tower are the colour on every postcard of Melaka. For most of their history, they were white.

    Illustration of a square of red colonial buildings with a clock tower, a fountain and a line of decorated trishaws

  2. 3 min read

    One gate, two empires

    Of the great Portuguese fortress of A Famosa, only one gate survives. It carries a Dutch coat of arms, and it may owe its survival to an Englishman.

    Illustration of a lone stone gateway with old cannons on a lawn, and a roofless church on the hill behind it

  3. 3 min read

    Under the Melaka tree

    A prince on the run, a hunting dog and a very brave mouse deer: how a settlement on a muddy river became the busiest port in Southeast Asia.

    Illustration of a mouse deer standing its ground beside a river under a leafy tree, as a hunting dog falls back toward the water
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