Malaysia

Malaysia: capital Kuala Lumpur, population 36M, area 330,803 km². The 45th most populous country, in Asia. Facts, map, neighbours and more.

Malaysia straddles the South China Sea, with the peninsula on the mainland and Sabah and Sarawak on Borneo. Sungai Batu in Kedah holds brick and iron-smelting remains from the second century, and the Malacca Sultanate founded around 1400 turned Classical Malay into the trading language of maritime Southeast Asia. The Petronas Towers, the caves of Gunung Mulu and the 4,095-metre peak of Kinabalu mark the modern country, whose kitchens gave the region nasi lemak and teh tarik.

• Sungai Batu in the Bujang Valley has yielded jetties, iron-smelting sites and a clay-brick monument dated to 110 AD, the oldest man-made structure recorded in Southeast Asia.
• Parameswara, the last king of Singapura, founded Malacca around 1400; its port made Classical Malay the lingua franca of maritime Southeast Asia and Jawi script its written medium.
• Tunku Abdul Rahman read the declaration of independence at Merdeka Stadium at exactly 9:30 a.m. on 31 August 1957, ending British protection over nine Malay states and two Straits Settlements.
• The Malaysia Agreement brought North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore together with Malaya on 16 September 1963, a date now kept as Malaysia Day; Singapore separated again in August 1965.

• Michelle Yeoh performed her own stunts in Hong Kong action films from 1985 before winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in 2023, the first Asian to take that category.
• Lee Chong Wei held the world number one badminton ranking for 349 weeks, including 199 straight from August 2008 to June 2012, and took Olympic silver three times.
• Nicol David stayed world number one in squash for 108 consecutive months and won eight World Open titles, the last of them in 2014, before retiring in 2019.
• Lat published his first comic book at thirteen and drew The Kampung Boy in 1979; Matt Groening and Sergio Aragonés both admire the three-loop noses he gives his characters.

• The Petronas Towers stand 451.9 metres tall and carry a double-decker skybridge at the forty-first and forty-second floors, 170 metres up, lifted into place over three days in July 1995.
• Sarawak Chamber inside Gunung Mulu is the largest known cave chamber on Earth by floor area; laser scanning in 2011 measured 164,459 square metres, and three British cavers found it in January 1981.
• Batu Caves sit on a 325-metre limestone mogote; 272 concrete steps built in 1940 climb to the Murugan shrine, and a 42.7-metre gilded statue of the god was unveiled in 2006.
• Kinabalu Park holds more than 4,500 species of plants and animals around a 4,095-metre peak, and became Malaysia's first World Heritage Site in December 2000.

• The wau bulan, a moon-shaped kite flown in Kelantan, appears on the reverse of the 1989 fifty-sen coin, and Malaysia Airlines took its logo from a related cat kite.
• Mak yong dance-drama from Kelantan casts women in every role except the clowns, runs three hours a night over several nights, and joined UNESCO's heritage list in 2005.
• Sepak takraw, Malaysia's national sport, is volleyball played with a rattan ball and no hands; officials from four countries settled its modern rules in Kuala Lumpur in 1960.
• Teh tarik, Malaysia's national drink, is brewed strong with condensed milk and poured back and forth between two vessels at arm's length until it cools and carries a froth.

What is the capital of Malaysia?

The capital of Malaysia is Kuala Lumpur.

What is the population of Malaysia?

Malaysia has about 36M people — the 45th most populous country in the world.

How big is Malaysia?

Malaysia covers 330,803 km², making it the 67th largest country by area.

Which region is Malaysia in?

Malaysia is in South-Eastern Asia, Asia.