Melaka
(2002 est. pop. 635,000). The state of Melaka (or Malacca in English) is located on the southwest corner of Peninsular Malaysia. Covering some 1,600 square kilometers in area, the state is primarily low-lying with its western coastline fronting the Straits of Malacca. Its principal economic activities once revolved around agriculture and commerce, but since the late 1980s, the tourism and industrial sectors have overtaken them in importance. The Melaka State Development Corporation is the quasi-state agency tasked with developing, coordinating, and promoting industry, tourism, and housing activities in the state.
The capital of the state is also called Melaka. A historic coastal city in western Peninsular Malaysia, it isabout 140 kilometers south of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital. Melaka city is a major tourist attraction, which the state tourism board advertises as "the place where it all began." The city boasts of having some of the country's oldest extant heritage buildings (mosques, temples, churches, colonial buildings etc.), as well as long-standing cultural enclaves of Baba-Nyonyas (Straits-born Chinese), Chitty Melaka (Straits-born Indians), and Portuguese Eurasians.
The Red Brick Christ Church built in Melaka in 1753. (NIK WHEELER/CORBIS)Further Reading
Hoyt, Sarnia Hayes. (1993) Old Malacca. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Oxford University Press.
Nik Hassan Shuhaimi and Nik Abdul Rahman, eds. (1998). The Encyclopedia of Malaysia. Vol. 4: Early History. Singapore: Archipelago Press.
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