This is the Melaka Sultanate Palace, situated at the foot of St Paul’s Hill. This is a wooden replica building of a palace used by Malacca’s Sultan Mansur Shah in the 15th century, before the arrival of the Portuguese. It was built in 1985 using traditional construction techniques and is a striking building from the outside and full of colourful displays inside.
The photos below show an assembly of noblemen in the presence of the Sultan.
Large paintings and models in the upper galleries depict famous legends, especially those involving the warriors Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat, more about them later.
When you leave the palace, you can then wander around a large garden area. You will see a large statue in the far distance with something that looks like a snail on the top. On closer examination, this turns out to be a Sultans hat. I have recently learnt that the clothes worn by a sultan and his followers were heavily proscribed down to the finest detail. I still have a lot to learn about all this and I am pretty sure there is a formal term for the Sultan’s hat, but I shall look that up later.
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