Image courtesy of Tourism Malaysia.
If you want to see where Penang, Malaysia began, you must venture to Georgetown, particularly the structure known as Fort Cornwallis. The fort marks the spot where British adventurer Captain Francis Light landed with his forces in 1786.
The star-shaped stone walls were completed in 1810; before construction of the walls began in 1804, the fortifications were nothing more than palm trunk. The Napoleonic wars of the early 19th century made stronger walls an urgent matter for the growing colony; hostile forces from both the resentful Sultan of Kedah (from which the island had been wrested) and pirates were also a driving factor for the construction of the walls.
Other structures of note within the fort's walls include the Chapel on the southwest bastion, known as the earliest-surviving roofed structure on the island; the cannon, which ring the fort and defended the island from invaders. (The moat which used to surround Fort Cornwallis was filled in during the 1920s due to the malaria caused by mosquitoes breeding in the foul moat water.)
For more on the old city surrounding Fort Cornwallis, visit our article: Georgetown, Penang.