Penang Hill

Penang Hill rises prominently from the lowlands as a cluster of forested peaks, its slopes standing out against the surrounding urban landscape of Air Itam. Known locally as Bukit Bendera, or Flag Hill, the name traces back to the flagstaff erected at Bel Retiro, a residence built for the governor of Penang by Francis Light around seventeen eighty-nine. The summit served as an early colonial retreat where British officials sought relief from the tropical heat and the threat of malaria in the nineteenth century.