Climb 272 steps past the tallest Murugan statue on Earth
42.7 metres of gold at the bottom
Batu Caves is a limestone outcrop on the northern edge of Kuala Lumpur, hollowed into a series of caverns and consecrated as a Hindu temple complex by Tamil immigrants in the late nineteenth century.
Why it's unique
The statue at the base is 42.7 metres of gold-painted reinforced concrete, unveiled in 2006 after three years of construction paid for by community donation. It is the tallest statue of Murugan in the world, and it sets the scale for everything above it.
The stairs are the experience: 272 of them, painted in bands of colour, climbing straight up the cliff into the Temple Cave. The rock they cut through is around 400 million years old. And Thaipusam has been observed here since 1892 — now hundreds of thousands of pilgrims in a single day, many carrying kavadi, which is a different visit entirely from an ordinary Tuesday.
Before you go
Go early. By ten the steps are in full sun with no shade on them and the climb becomes genuinely hard work.
The macaques are aggressive and will take food, phones and sunglasses — carry nothing loose in your hands. Shoulders and knees covered; sarongs are lent at the base. If your dates land near Thaipusam (January or February) expect crowds measured in hundreds of thousands, and decide deliberately whether that is what you want.