Kuala Selangor: Bukit Melawati & Kampung Kuantan Fireflies

Kuala Selangor was one of the earliest centres of power in the region. A fort on Bukit Melawati is said to date back to the Malacca Sultanate in the early sixteenth century, and in the eighteenth century the town became the first royal capital of the Sultanate of Selangor. Sultan Ibrahim Shah strengthened the hilltop defences, but in 1784 the Dutch East India Company attacked, bombarding the fort from the sea after Sultan Ibrahim's ally, Raja Haji, had besieged Dutch-held Malacca. The Dutch renamed it Fort Altingsburg, after their Governor-General, before the Sultan recaptured it the following year. The fort was later destroyed during the Selangor Civil War in the nineteenth century.

The Altingsburg Lighthouse on the hill dates from British-era work in 1907, replacing an earlier Dutch light, and still guides ships through the Straits of Malacca. The royal mausoleum on the hill holds the graves of the first three sultans of Selangor.

Firefly tourism at Kampung Kuantan began in the 1970s, when a local entrepreneur started taking visitors out on the river. The district council later took over and expanded the operation, which still uses traditional rowed sampans to protect the fireflies' habitat.

Kuala Selangor is a quiet fishing and farming town whose rhythms follow the river and the tides. Local boatmen at Kampung Kuantan have rowed visitors to the fireflies for decades, and the fireflies are a source of pride and income for the community. Bukit Melawati holds a special place in Selangor's identity as the site of the first royal capital, and the royal mausoleum is still respected as a sacred site. Families from the Klang Valley visit at weekends for the monkeys, the views and a seafood meal by the river.