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City guide · Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur covers 243 square kilometres and held 2,111,536 people in 2026, with 8.81 million across the Klang Valley around it. It is a young capital: a settlement grew here from about 1857 to supply the tin mines, and the federal government it later housed mostly left again in 1999 for Putrajaya, leaving parliament and the royal residence behind. What the city put up instead is legible from any high window — the Petronas Towers, and three of the ten largest shopping malls in the world. Mastercard's 2019 index ranked it the sixth most-visited city anywhere.
Ranked by importance — sitelinks, pageviews and heritage status, not editor preference.
Masjid Negara is Malaysia's national mosque, standing on Jalan Perdana in the centre of Kuala Lumpur. The mosque's own history page dates its construction to between 1963 and 27 August 1965 and puts its capacity at 15,000 worshippers.
Guan Di Temple stands at 168 Jalan Tun H.S. Lee, on the eastern edge of Kuala Lumpur's Chinatown and a short walk from the Petaling Street market arch.
Thean Hou Temple is a six-tiered temple to Mazu, the Chinese sea goddess, standing on 6,758 square metres of hillside at Robson Heights, above Jalan Syed Putra and about three kilometres south of the middle of Kuala Lumpur.
Set your days, your pace and the hours you actually want to be out. The planner works around closing days and travel time, and leaves room to eat.
