National Textiles Museum

This guide to the National Textiles Museum in Kuala Lumpur traces the Moorish-domed building back to 1905, when it opened as headquarters for the Federated Malay States Railways, designed by British architect Arthur Benison Hubback in his signature Indo-Saracenic style. You'll hear how the building passed through water department, bank and courthouse tenants before finding its match as a museum in 2010, and about the songket textiles inside, woven with real gold thread once reserved for royalty. Brides and kings alike have worn it.