Esplanade

This guide to the Esplanade in George Town follows a bronze Dutch cannon cast in 1603, gifted to the Sultan of Johor, looted by Aceh, handed to Selangor, and finally seized by British forces in 1871 after a pirate attack. It traces the legend of how the gun is said to have floated ashore on its own and become Sri Rambai, a fertility charm that childless women came to sit astride. The gun stood on this same open padang for decades, through band concerts, cricket matches and a war that flattened the pavilions around it.