Menara Taming Sari

Ready to see all of Malacca from the sky lah? Menara Taming Sari is Malaysia's first gyro tower, and it offers the single best panoramic view of this entire UNESCO World Heritage city. The tower stands one hundred and ten metres tall — that is about twenty-four storeys — making it the tallest structure of its kind in Malaysia. The revolving observation deck rises to eighty metres, spinning slowly in a full three-hundred-and-sixty-degree rotation over about seven minutes. On a clear day, you can see all the way to the Straits of Malacca on one side and the rolling hills of the interior on the other.

But before we go up, let us talk about the name, because it carries some serious legendary weight, kan? Taming Sari was the name of the famous keris — a traditional Malay dagger — that belonged to Hang Tuah, the most celebrated warrior in Malay history and literature. According to the Malay Annals, Hang Tuah was the greatest laksamana, or admiral, of the Malaccan Sultanate in the fifteenth century. His keris, Taming Sari, was said to possess supernatural powers — whoever wielded it was invincible in battle. The legend of Hang Tuah and his four warrior brothers — Hang Jebat, Hang Kasturi, Hang Lekir, and Hang Lekiu — is central to Malay identity and culture.

You will notice their names everywhere in Malacca, on streets, buildings, and monuments. The rivalry between Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat, in particular, is one of the great moral dramas of Malay literature — a story about loyalty versus justice that Malaysians still debate passionately today. Naming this tower after the legendary keris is a way of connecting modern Malacca to its mythic past. Just as Taming Sari...