title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: The University railway station, which serves the University of Birmingham, will be renovated and is expected to be complete in time for the Games. The University of Birmingham is due to host hockey and squash events for the Games. The Birmingham-based architectural firm Associated Architects designed the masterplan of the station's renovation. Its proposals for the stop, on the suburban Cross City Line heading south-west out of the city, include a new pedestrian bridge over the Worcester and Birmingham Canal. The practice said the new station would be built adjacent to the existing station that serves the university and would be able to accommodate approximately seven million passengers a year – double the current station's footfall. The renovation of the station will cost around £22 million. In July 2020, it was announced that the cost of the renovation was increased to £56 million, out of which £12 million will be funded by the British Government. In addition the new station was not finished in time for the games.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: Transport for West Midlands (TfWM) will provide the city's first continuous cross-city bus route in time for the Games. The new Sprint bus route will run an express service along the A34 and A45 between Walsall and Birmingham Airport and Solihull to Walsall via the city centre. The service will be zero-emission with priority signals and extended bus lanes, along with "a swift boarding experience" to improve journey times and reliability. In February 2020 it was announced that the West Midlands Combined Authority Board was planning to approve the £88 million funding and delivery schedule for Sprint in advance of the Games, to offer commuters and the Games visitors services to key venues including Alexander Stadium, Arena Birmingham and the Resorts World Arena.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: At the time of submission of the bid to the CGF, the bid committee announced that the event would cost £750 million. On 25 June 2019, the British Government announced that the event will cost £778 million. The British Government will cover the 75% (£594 million) and Birmingham City Council will cover the rest 25% (£184 million). The budget is lower than the £967 million spent on the Gold Coast 2018, but higher than the £543 million spent on the Glasgow 2014. It is set to be the most expensive sporting event in the UK since the 2012 Summer Olympics in London which cost £8.8 billion. The real cost will be published after completion.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: Over 1.3 million tickets were sold for the Games. A ticket ballot for local residents opened on 14 July 2021, with the main public ticket ballot running from 8 to 30 September 2021.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: The West Midlands Police said around 3,000 officers would be deployed to patrol the 2022 Commonwealth Games. 1,000 of these were to come from West Midlands Police and 2000 from a "mutual aid" arrangement with other UK forces. Additionally, private drones were banned over a no-fly zone and 55 police dogs were also part of the security plan.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: The Queen's baton of the 2022 Commonwealth Games was unveiled 29 September 2021. Designed as a collaboration between Birmingham Open Media, Raymont-Osman Product Design, Maokwo and Kajul, it is constructed using lost-wax casting, 3D Printing, copper plating and CNC machining. It incorporates copper, aluminum, and brass metals symbolising medals, and a strip of platinum in observance of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. It also contains a 360-degree camera, an LED lighting system tied to a heart rate monitor (and displaying different effects when held by two people), and sensors to record environmental conditions—whose data will be analysed by a team at the University of Birmingham following the relay.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: Laura Nyahuye, who lead the team of five artists at Maokwo, stated that the baton was designed to "relate" to the countries and residents of the Commonwealth, and reflect the "authenticity and honesty" of its journey; these goals were met by avoiding the use of precious metals, and through its use of copper—which is designed to oxidise and develop a teal patina over the course of the relay.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: The relay began on 7 October 2021 at Buckingham Palace in London, and will last for 294 days—travelling through 72 Commonwealth nations and territories. After placing her message inside the baton, Queen Elizabeth II presented it to British Paralympic athlete and cyclist Kadeena Cox. During the opening ceremony, the baton was delivered to Charles, Prince of Wales, who read the Queen's message to officially open the Games.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: Birmingham 2022 took place in 15 venues spread across the West Midlands region, with seven of them, including the athletics stadium and marathon route, located in the city of Birmingham. The National Exhibition Centre complex, located on the fringes of the city in neighbouring Solihull, hosted events in its exhibition halls and at the Resorts World Arena. The six other regional hosts were Coventry, Cannock Chase, Royal Leamington Spa, Sandwell, Warwick and Wolverhampton. A sixteenth venue, the Lee Valley VeloPark in Stratford, East London, hosted the track cycling.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: The opening ceremonies of the 2022 Commonwealth Games were held at Alexander Stadium on 28 July 2022. Director Iqbal Khan stated that the ceremony would aim to showcase the "vivid and vibrant confidence" of Birmingham. It was headlined by Birmingham-based new wave band Duran Duran, while Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath–who is also a Birmingham native–performed alongside Soweto Kinch during a segment of the ceremony.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: The closing ceremony took place on 8 August 2022 at Alexander Stadium, and included the formal handover to the Australian state of Victoria, host of the 2026 Commonwealth Games in a segment headlined by Vanessa Amorosi. The ceremony featured tributes to the industrial history of Birmingham, the Windrush generation and Birmingham TV show "Peaky Blinders", and included performances from a number of famous West Midlands musicians and groups, including Dexys Midnight Runners, UB40, Panjabi MC, Musical Youth, Goldie, Beverley Knight, Apache Indian, Jorja Smith, The Selecter, and Laura Mvula. The grand finale featured a surprise appearance by Ozzy Osbourne in his first live performance in three years, joined by Tony Iommi and former touring members of Black Sabbath Tommy Clufetos and Adam Wakeman for a medley of "Iron Man" and "Paranoid".


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: A new edition of the Commonwealth Games Charter came into effect for these Games. In addition to the ten core sports that were part of Gold Coast 2018 — athletics, badminton, boxing, hockey, lawn bowls, netball (for women), rugby sevens, squash, swimming and weightlifting — five new sports will be integrated into the core sports: road cycling, judo (previously optional), triathlon, table tennis, and wrestling. The charter also mandates that a number of parasports events (i.e. sports for elite athletes with disabilities) must be integrated within four core sports: athletics, lawn bowls, swimming and weightlifting (the lattermost is actually represented by a variation of powerlifting).


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: The charter also establishes the list of optional sports and disciplines that can be chosen by the organisation of each edition: archery (recurve), basketball (3x3 or 5x5), beach volleyball, cycling (mountain bike and track), rhythmic gymnastics, and shooting (clay target, full bore, small bore and pistol). This same rule also establishes that the following events for athletes with disabilities are optional: wheelchair basketball (3x3), para track-cycling, para-table tennis and para-triathlon. Including compulsory and optional sports (disciplines), there shall be no more than 4 team sports on the programme of a Commonwealth Games. If basketball (3x3) is selected from the pool of optional sports, basketball (wheelchair para 3x3) becomes an obligatory event (or vice versa), in which case the sport of basketball shall be considered as one team sport. In cases when cricket is selected from the pool of optional sports, wheelchair basketball also becomes a part of the programme and can be an exception to the 4 team sports limit. Respecting local demands, an extra sport or some extra events can be included in this list, but they have to be approved by the Commonwealth Games Federation two years before that edition is held. The current rules also determine gender parity, whereby men and women have an equal (or broadly equal) share of events.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: On 22 December 2017, the BBC reported that the organisers of the games were in talks with the International Cricket Council (ICC) about the inclusion of women's cricket. In November 2018, the ICC confirmed that they have submitted a bid to include women's cricket in the Games. The bid was made in partnership with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: It was also reported that shooting was likely to be excluded from the games citing a lack of facilities around Birmingham. Shooting has been included at every Commonwealth Games since Christchurch 1974. In January 2018, the dropping of shooting from the games programme was confirmed by the then CEO of the CGF David Grevemberg. In December 2018, The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) delegation including President of ISSF Vladimir Lisin and CEO of British Shooting (BS) Hamish McInnes visited Birmingham and discussed with the Birmingham organising committee to add shooting in the 2022 Commonwealth Games.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: In December 2018, the World Archery Federation (WA) confirmed that they had delivered a proposal for archery's inclusion in the Games. The bid was made in partnership with Archery GB and included Aston Hall as a suggested competition venue.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: In June 2019, after some time of popular searches and queries. Birmingham organising committee recommended the addition of two extra sports: para table tennis and beach volleyball. The proposal was approved by the CGF executive board.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: The CGF officially announced on 13 August 2019 that the women's T20 cricket, beach volleyball and para table tennis have been included in the Games while due to infrastructure and logistics issues shooting had to be excluded and the proposal to add archery was rejected.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: With the changes in the Charter, and the review of options, the major changes from Gold Coast 2018 include the addition of judo to the core sports and the local organizers' optional decision to hold a women's cricket tournament, taking advantage of local infrastructure. Returning to the Games for the first time in 24 years, due to various calendar issues, cricket will be exclusively female for the first time.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: First time events introduced at Birmingham 2022 are 3x3 basketball and its wheelchair counterpart. Birmingham will have the largest number of events available for women and athletes with disabilities in the history of the Games.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: In October 2020, the list of events to be played in Birmingham was revealed, though three parasport relays in athletics and swimming were later removed from the programme owing to a lack of indicative entries. The schedule was refined to 280 finals played across 20 disciplines. This includes 136 events for women and 134 for men, an unprecedented gender balance amongst major multi-sport events though falling short of the 2018 Commonwealth Games when a perfect gender split had been achieved. In addition, 10 mixed gender events and 39 parasport events were scheduled.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: The final list of disciplines, with the number of events in each discipline noted in the brackets, is:


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: In January 2020, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which functions also as the Commonwealth Games Association (CGA) representing India, submitted a proposal to the CGF to host a combined archery and shooting championships in Chandigarh during January 2022. The proposal was endorsed by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), the Government of India, the ISSF and WA. The CGF Executive Board approved the proposal at their meeting in London which took place on 21–23 February 2020, and also confirmed that the 2022 Commonwealth Shooting and Archery Championships and the 2022 Commonwealth Games will be two separately organised and funded Commonwealth Sport events. The CGF shall issue a medal table one week following the Birmingham 2022 closing ceremony that includes results from Chandigarh 2022 as a further and final ranking of competing nations and territories from the respective competitions. In July 2021, the CGF announced that the event had been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: In February 2022, the CGF announced that esports would be included in the Games as a demonstration event and is in a possibility to be added at the games program at the future editions. The inaugural Commonwealth Esports Championship will have separate branding, medals, and organisation and will include both men and women's "Dota 2", "eFootball", and "Rocket League" events.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: The official emblem was unveiled on 27 July 2019 at Centenary Square during the Commonwealth Social festival. It was designed by local agency RBL, based in Royal Leamington Spa, and is a jagged, triangular "B" shape formed by blue-yellow gradient lines representing the key venues of the Games in the West Midlands. The emblem is also the first to use the new branding for the CGF, as "Commonwealth Sport". It received a mainly positive reaction from locals in the city and on social media and some compared it to the emblem for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: The official partners of the 2022 Commonwealth Games were Longines, University of Birmingham, E.ON, Chase, Severn Trent and Dettol.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: The official mascot for the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games is Perry, a multi-coloured bull. Perry is named after an area of Birmingham, Perry Barr, within which Perry Park and the main athletics stadium, the Alexander Stadium, are located. The bull has a long history with being a symbol of Birmingham, and was positively received by the public on launch. Perry was designed by ten-year-old Emma Lou from Bolton.


title: 2022 Commonwealth Games

text: In November 2019, Sky New Zealand acquired the rights to broadcast the 2022 and 2026 Games in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands. In July 2020, production company Sunset+Vine was appointed as the host broadcaster for the event. In October 2020, BBC acquired the United Kingdom rights. In October 2021, Seven Network acquired the Australian rights. In June 2022, it was announced that Mediacorp has acquired the rights to broadcast the games in Singapore.


title: Moloch

text: Moloch (; "Mōleḵ" or הַמֹּלֶךְ "hamMōleḵ"; , ; also Molech or Molek) is a name or a term which appears in the Hebrew Bible several times, primarily in the book of Leviticus. The Bible strongly condemns practices which are associated with Moloch, practices which appear to have included child sacrifice.


title: Moloch

text: Traditionally, Moloch has been understood as referring to a Canaanite god. However, since 1935, scholars have debated whether or not the term refers to a type of sacrifice on the basis of a similar term, also spelled "mlk", which means "sacrifice" in the Punic language. This second position has grown increasingly popular, but it remains contested. Among proponents of this second position, controversy continues as to whether the sacrifices were offered to Yahweh or another deity, and whether they were a native Israelite religious custom or a Phoenician import.


title: Moloch

text: Since the medieval period, Moloch has often been portrayed as a bull-headed idol with outstretched hands over a fire; this depiction takes the brief mentions of Moloch in the Bible and combines them with various sources, including ancient accounts of Carthaginian child sacrifice and the legend of the Minotaur.


title: Moloch

text: "Moloch" has been figuratively used in reference to a person or a thing which demands or requires a very costly sacrifice. A god Moloch appears in various works of literature and film, such as John Milton's "Paradise Lost" (1667), Gustave Flaubert's "Salammbô" (1862), Fritz Lang's "Metropolis (1927 film)", and Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" (1955).


title: Moloch

text: "Moloch" derives from a Latin transcription of the Greek Μόλοχ "Mólokh", itself a transcription of the original "Mōleḵ".


title: Moloch

text: The etymology of Moloch is uncertain: most scholars derive it from the root "to rule" but with the vowels of "shame" (first advanced by Abraham Geiger in 1857), much like "Ashtoreth", or as a "qal" participle from the same verb. R. M. Kerr criticizes both theories by noting that — "Ashtoreth" notwithstanding – the name of no other god appears to have been formed from a "qal" participle, and that Geiger's proposal is "an out-of-date theory which has never received any factual support". Paul Mosca similarly argued that "The theory that a form would immediately suggest to the reader or hearer the word (rather than or ) is the product of nineteenth century ingenuity, not of Massoretic or pre-Massoretic tendentiousness".


title: Moloch

text: Scholars who do not believe that Moloch represents a deity instead compare the name to inscriptions in the closely-related Punic language where the word ("molk" or "mulk") refers to a type of sacrifice, a connection first proposed by Otto Eissfeldt (1935). Eissfeldt himself, following Jean-Baptiste Chabot, connected Punic and "Moloch" to a Syriac verb meaning "to promise", a theory also supported as "the least problematic solution" by Heath Dewrell (2017). Scholars such as W. von Soden argue that the term is a nominalized causative form of the verb , meaning "to offer", "present", and thus means "the act of presenting" or "thing presented". Kerr instead derives both the Punic and Hebrew word from the verb , which he proposes meant "to own", "to possess" in Proto-Semitic, only later coming to mean "to rule"; the meaning of Moloch would thus originally have been "present", "gift", and later come to mean "sacrifice".


title: Moloch

text: The word "Moloch" occurs 8 times in the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible; in one of these instances (1 Kings 11:7) it is probably a mistake for Milcom, the god of the Ammonites. Five of the others are in Leviticus, with one in 2 Kings and another in The Book of Jeremiah. Each mention of "Moloch" indicates the presence of the article , or "the", therefore reading "the Moloch". Likewise, when passages describe things coming or going "to Moloch", the prepositional lamedh is conjugated with a () to match the form of "...to "the" Moloch", as opposed to being conjugated with a (), which would afford the reading "...to Moloch". A is, however, present in 1 Kings 11:7, although this may be explained by the apparently erroneous substitution of "Moloch" for "Milkom" detailed above.


title: Moloch

text: All of these texts condemn Israelites who engage in practices associated with Moloch, and most associate Moloch with the use of children as offerings. The activity of causing children "to pass over the fire" is mentioned, without reference to Moloch, in numerous other verses of the bible, such as in Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 12:31, 18:10), 2 Kings (2 Kings 16:3; 17:17; 17:31; 21:6), 2 Chronicles (2 Chronicles 28:3; 33:6), the Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:31, 19:5) and the Book of Ezekiel (Ezekiel 16:21; 20:26, 31; 23:37).


title: Moloch

text: In 2 Kings, Moloch is associated with the tophet in the valley of Gehenna when it is destroyed by king Josiah:


title: Moloch

text: Lastly, the prophet Jeremiah condemns practices associated with Moloch as showing infidelity to Yahweh:


title: Moloch

text: Given the name's similarity to the Hebrew word "king", scholars have also searched the Masoretic text to find instances of that may be mistakes for Moloch. Most scholars consider only one instance as likely a mistake, in Isaiah:


title: Moloch

text: The Greek Septuagint translates the instances of Moloch in Leviticus as "ruler" (), and as "king" () at 1 Kings 11:7. It contains Moloch at 2 Kings 23:10 and Jeremiah 30:35. Additionally, the Septuagint uses the name Moloch in Amos where it is not found in the Masoretic text:


title: Moloch

text: The Greek version with Moloch is quoted in the New Testament and accounts for the one occurrence of Moloch there (Acts 7:43).


title: Moloch

text: Before 1935, all scholars held that Moloch was a pagan deity, to whom child sacrifice was offered at the Jerusalem tophet. The medieval rabbinical tradition understood Moloch as closely related to other similarly named deities mentioned in the bible such as Milcom, Adrammelek, and Anammelech. The medieval rabbinical tradition also connected Moloch to reports of ancient Phoenician and Carthaginian child sacrifice; both of these rabbinical ideas were taken over by early modern scholarship. Some modern scholars have proposed that Moloch may be the same god as Milcom, Adad-Milki, or an epithet for Baal.


title: Moloch

text: G. C. Heider and John Day connect Moloch with a deity "Mlk" attested at Ugarit and "Malik" attested in Mesopotamia and proposes that he was a god of the underworld, as in Mesopotamia "Malik" is twice equated with the underworld god Nergal. Day also notes that Isaiah seems to associate Moloch with Sheol. The Ugaritic deity "Mlk" also appears to be associated with the underworld, and the similarly named Phoenician god Melqart (literally "king of the city") could have underworld associations if "city" is understood to mean "underworld", as proposed by William F. Albright. Heider also argued that there was also an Akkadian term referring to the shades of the dead.


title: Moloch

text: The notion that Moloch refers to a deity has been challenged for several reasons. Moloch is rarely mentioned in the Bible, is not mentioned at all outside of it, and connections to other deities with similar names are uncertain. Moreover, it is possible that some of the supposed deities named "Mlk" are epithets for another god, given that "mlk" can also mean "king". The Israelite rite conforms, on the other hand, to the Punic rite in that both involved the sacrifice of children. None of the proposed gods Moloch could be identified with is associated with human sacrifice, the god "Mlk" of Ugarit appears to have only received animal sacrifice, and the sacrifice is never offered to a god name "Mlk" but rather to another deity.


title: Moloch

text: In 1935, Otto Eissfeldt proposed, on the basis of Punic inscriptions, that Moloch was a form of sacrifice rather than a deity. Punic inscriptions commonly associate the word with three other words: (lamb), (citizen) and (human being). and never occur in the same description and appear to be interchangeable. Other words that sometimes occur are (flesh). When put together with , these words indicate a "-sacrifice consisting of...". The Biblical term would thus be translated not as "to Moloch", as normally translated, but as "as a molk-sacrifice", a meaning consistent with uses of the Hebrew preposition elsewhere. Bennie Reynolds further argues that Jeremiah's use of "Moloch" in conjunction with Baal in Jer 32:25 is parallel to his use of "burnt offering" and Baal in Jeremiah 19:4–5.


title: Moloch

text: The view that Moloch refers to a type of sacrifice was challenged by John Day and George Heider in the 1980s. Day and Heider argued that it was unlikely that biblical commentators had misunderstood an earlier term for a sacrifice as a deity and that Leviticus 20:5's mention of "whoring after Moloch" necessarily implied that Moloch was a god. Day and Heider nevertheless accepted that "mlk" was a sacrificial term in Punic, but argue that it did not originate in Phoenicia and that it was not brought back to Phoenicia by the Punic diaspora. More recently, Anthony Frendo argues that the Hebrew equivalent to Punic (the root of Punic ) is the verb "to pass over"; in Frendo's view, this means that Hebrew Moloch is not derived from the same root as Punic .


title: Moloch

text: Since Day's and Heider's objections, a growing number of scholars has come to believe that Moloch refers to the "mulk" sacrifice rather than a deity. Francesca Stavrakopoulou argues that "because both Heider and Day accept Eissfeldt's interpretation of Phoenician-Punic as a sacrificial term, their positions are at once compromised by the possibility that biblical could well function in a similar way as a technical term for a type of sacrifice". She further argues that "whoring after Moloch" does not need to imply a deity as refers to both the act of sacrificing and the thing sacrificed, allowing an interpretation of "whor[ing] after the mlk-offering". Heath Dewrell argues that the translation of Leviticus 20:5 in the Septuagint, which substitutes "ἄρχοντας" "princes" for "Moloch", implies that the biblical urtext did not include the phrase "whoring after Moloch". Bennie Reynolds further notes that at least one inscription from Tyre does appear to mention sacrifice ("RES" 367); therefore Day and Heider are incorrect that the practice is unattested in Canaan (Phoenicia). Reynolds also argues for further parallels.


title: Moloch

text: Among scholars who deny the existence of a deity Moloch, debate remains as to whether the Israelite "mlk" sacrifices were offered to Yahweh or another deity. Armin Lange suggests that the Binding of Isaac represents a "mlk"-sacrifice to Yahweh in which the child is finally substituted with a sheep, noting that Isaac was meant to be a burnt offering. This opinion is shared by Stavrakopoulou, who also points to the sacrifice of Jephthah of his daughter as a burnt offering. Frendo, while he argues that "Moloch" refers to a god, accepts Stavrakopoulou's argument that the sacrifices in the tophet were originally to Yahweh. Dewrell argues that although sacrifices were offered to Yahweh, they were distinct from other forms of human or child sacrifice found in the Bible (such as that of Jephthah) and were a foreign custom imported by the Israelites from the Phoenicians during the reign of Ahaz.


title: Moloch

text: A minority of scholars, mainly scholars of Punic studies, has argued that the ceremonies to Moloch are in fact a non-lethal dedication ceremony rather than a sacrifice. These theories are partially supported by commentary in the Talmud and among early Jewish commentators of the Bible. Rejecting such arguments, Paolo Xella and Francesca Stavrakopoulou note that the Bible explicitly connects the ritual to Moloch at the tophet with the verbs indicating slaughter, killing in sacrifice, deities "eating" the children, and holocaust. Xella also refers to Carthaginian and Phoenician child sacrifice found referenced in Greco-Roman sources.


title: Moloch

text: Medieval and modern sources tend to portray Moloch as a bull-headed humanoid idol with arms outstretched over a fire, onto which the sacrificial child is placed. This portrayal can be traced back to medieval Jewish commentaries, which connected the biblical Moloch with depictions of Carthaginian sacrifice to Cronus (Baal Hammon) found in sources such as Diodorus, with George Foote Moore suggesting that the bull's head may derive from the mythological Minotaur. John S. Rundin suggests that further sources for the image are the legend of Talos and the brazen bull built for king Phalaris of the Greek city of Acragas on Sicily. He notes that both legends, as well as that of the Minotaur, have potential associations with Semitic child sacrifice.


title: Moloch

text: In John Milton's "Paradise Lost" (1667), Moloch is one of the greatest warriors of the fallen angels,


title: Moloch

text: He is listed among the chief of Satan's angels in Book I, and is given a speech at the parliament of Hell in Book 2:43–105, where he argues for immediate warfare against God. He later becomes revered as a pagan god on Earth.


title: Moloch

text: Gustave Flaubert's "Salammbô", a historical novel about Carthage published in 1862, included a version of the Carthaginian religion, including the god Moloch, whom he characterized as a god to whom the Carthaginians offered children. Flaubert described this Moloch mostly according to the Rabbinic descriptions, but with a few of his own additions. From chapter 7:


title: Moloch

text: Chapter 13 describes how, in desperate attempt to call down rain, the image of Moloch was brought to the center of Carthage, how the arms of the image were moved by the pulling of chains by the priests (apparently Flaubert's own invention), and then describes the sacrifices made to Moloch. First grain and animals of various kinds were placed in compartments within the statue (as in the Rabbinic account). Then the children were offered, at first a few, and then more and more.


title: Moloch

text: In Karel Čapek's "War with the Newts" (1936), the Newts counter Christian attempts at conversion by turning to a god of their own creation named Moloch:


title: Moloch

text: In Allen Ginsberg's poem "Howl" (1955), Moloch is used as a metaphor for industrial civilization and for America more specifically. The word is repeated many times throughout Part II of the poem, and begins (as an exclamation of "Moloch!") all but the first and last five stanzas of the section.


title: Dax Shepard

text: Dax Randall Shepard (born January 2, 1975) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker and podcast host. Since 2018, he has hosted "Armchair Expert", a podcast that interviews celebrities, journalists, and academics about their lives.


title: Dax Shepard

text: Shepard has appeared in the feature films "Without a Paddle" (2004), "" (2005), "Employee of the Month" (2006), "Idiocracy" (2006), "Let's Go to Prison" (2006), "Hit and Run" (2012), and "CHiPs" (2017), the last two of which he also wrote and directed. Shepard portrayed Crosby Braverman in the NBC comedy-drama series "Parenthood" from 2010 to 2015. He also played Luke Matthews in the Netflix show "The Ranch", co-starred in ABC's "Bless This Mess",


title: Dax Shepard

text: He is also a co-founder of the diaper and baby product company Hello Bello with his wife, Kristen Bell.


title: Dax Shepard

text: Shepard was born in Highland Township, Michigan, in suburban Detroit. He is the son of Laura LaBo, who worked at General Motors (GM), and David Robert "Dave" Shepard Sr., who was a car salesman. His parents divorced when he was 3 years old.


title: Dax Shepard

text: Shepard's mother developed a substantial business by the time he was in high school. She worked car shows with traveling events at race tracks. She started as a janitor on the midnight shift at GM, then worked in fleet management at the GM proving grounds in Milford, Michigan, then hosted hospitality days for all the GM family members, eventually moving into public relations at an ad agency. She went back to GM, becoming the owner of four shops that managed publicity events for magazine journalists. From the age of 14 to 18, Shepard worked for his mother on the road, going from racetrack to racetrack. For about two years, Shepard had a stepfather who was an engineer on the Corvette. Shepard's mother has been married four times; Shepard said he's had three stepfathers.


title: Dax Shepard

text: According to Shepard, his mother named him for the rich playboy Dax (Diogenes Alejandro Xenos), in Harold Robbins' novel "The Adventurers". He has an older brother, David Shepard Jr., who lives in Oregon, and a younger half-sister, Carly Hatter, whom he cast in two films: 2012's "Hit and Run" and 2017's "CHiPs". He is also distantly related to George Washington, through marriage, on his mother's side.


title: Dax Shepard

text: Shepard has said that he was raised in Milford, although he lived in a lot of places in suburban Detroit, growing up primarily in Walled Lake, Michigan. He graduated from Walled Lake Central High School in 1993 before enrolling in The Groundlings school. After attending Santa Monica College and West Los Angeles College, Shepard transferred to UCLA, where he graduated "magna cum laude" with a B.A. in Anthropology. He had a deal with his mother that if he went to college she would pay his rent.


title: Dax Shepard

text: After a year in Santa Barbara, California, Shepard moved to Los Angeles in 1996. He found out about The Groundlings improv troupe from a friend from Santa Barbara, Kareem Elseify, ended up auditioning (the first time he acted), and took classes while also attending UCLA. After about five years of classes, he got into the Sunday Company of The Groundlings—in a group that included Melissa McCarthy, Fortune Feimster, Tate Taylor and Nat Faxon.


title: Dax Shepard

text: From 2003 onwards, Shepard became known from his work in the improv Candid Camera-type show, "Punk'd," with Ashton Kutcher. When the show had its 2012 revival, he continued to appear. Shepard said he auditioned for "Punk'd" and while doing the pilot became friendly with Kutcher, who arranged for him to get an agent. He had auditioned unsuccessfully for 10 years before landing the role in "Punk'd", his first.


title: Dax Shepard

text: In 2004, Shepard starred in the comedy "Without a Paddle", alongside Seth Green and Matthew Lillard. Although the film received negative reviews, it was a commercial success that as of 2009 had grossed more than US$65 million worldwide. In 2005, he starred as The Astronaut in "", a science fiction adventure fantasy film. In 2006, he appeared with Dane Cook and Jessica Simpson in the comedy "Employee of the Month" and in Mike Judge's film "Idiocracy" as the character Frito.


title: Dax Shepard

text: During the same time, Shepard began appearing in more films and landed his first main character role in "Let's Go to Prison" (2006), alongside Will Arnett and Chi McBride. He also had a main role in the 2008 comedy "Baby Mama", starring opposite Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Shepard wrote the script for the Paramount venture "Get 'Em Wet", in which he again appeared with Arnett. In 2010, he wrote, directed and starred in the low-budget satirical mockumentary feature "Brother's Justice"; the film won an Audience Award at the 2010 Austin Film Festival. He also had a supporting role in the 2010 romantic comedy film "When in Rome", which also starred his future wife Kristen Bell.


title: Dax Shepard

text: From 2010 to 2015, Shepard was part of the main cast of the NBC drama "Parenthood", playing Crosby Braverman.


title: Dax Shepard

text: Shepard wrote, produced, co-directed, and starred in the 2012 low-budget film "Hit and Run" alongside Bell and his close friend Bradley Cooper. He said the movie, which includes numerous car chases and fast driving scenes, allowed him to live out his "Smokey and the Bandit" fantasy.


title: Dax Shepard

text: Shepard had a supporting role in the 2014 film "The Judge", which starred Robert Downey Jr., Robert Duvall and Vera Farmiga.


title: Dax Shepard

text: In September 2014, Dax starred with his wife, Kristen Bell, in a commercial for the Samsung Galaxy Tab S. It was so popular (with over 20 million YouTube views) that they did another commercial for the holiday season. The ad agency McKinney was behind both.


title: Dax Shepard

text: Shepard wrote and directed a feature-length film called "CHiPs," based on the 1977 to 1983 American crime drama of the same name, where he starred as Officer Jon Baker alongside Michael Peña as Frank "Ponch" Poncherello. The project was released by Warner Bros. on March 24, 2017 to negative reviews.


title: Dax Shepard

text: On February 14, 2018, Shepard launched the podcast "Armchair Expert" with cohost Monica Padman. The show explores the stories of their well-known guests. Featured guests on the show have included Kristen Bell, Ashton Kutcher, Will Ferrell, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. On June 7, 2018, the show released their first episode of "Experts on Expert", in which Shepard and Padman interview experts in their fields. Featured experts on the show have included psychologist Wendy Mogel, comedian and author David Sedaris, and speechwriter Jon Favreau. The show was the most popular new podcast on iTunes in 2018. On December 3, 2019, it was revealed that Shepard will be a host of the revived "Top Gear America", which premiered on Motor Trend in January 2021.


title: Dax Shepard

text: Shepard met actress Kristen Bell, also a native of Detroit's northern suburbs, at the birthday party of a mutual friend; they began dating in late 2007. The couple announced their engagement in January 2010; however, they decided to delay marriage until the state of California passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage. After section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on June 26, 2013, Bell asked Shepard through Twitter to marry her, which he accepted. They were married at the Beverly Hills County Clerk's Office on October 17, 2013. They have two daughters, born in March 2013 and December 2014.


title: Dax Shepard

text: Shepard has said that, except for a year in high school when he used drugs, he did not have a substance abuse problem until he was 18 years old. After many struggles, Shepard achieved sobriety in September 2005. On September 25, 2020, in a special episode of his podcast, "Armchair Expert", Shepard revealed he had relapsed while recovering from an accident by buying painkillers to augment a prescription. He announced that he was again sober, with seven days of sobriety as of the recording date (September 21, 2020).


title: Dax Shepard

text: Shepard races motorcycles at Buttonwillow Raceway, including his Ducati Hypermotard 1100S and Suzuki GSX-R1000. He donates much of his time to the Hollenbeck Youth Center, an after-school program that provides opportunity to at-risk inner-city youth. He has served as their official Master of Ceremonies, along with his friend Tom Arnold, for the Inner-City Games and Hollenbeck Youth Center's Miracle on 1st Street Toy Giveaway Program in East Los Angeles.


title: Dax Shepard

text: He is an avid car enthusiast and can rebuild an engine. He owns the 1967 Lincoln Continental that was featured in the movie "Hit and Run", and races off-road.


title: Dax Shepard

text: Shepard and his wife were advocates of California Senate Bill 606, called "no-kids paparazzi". Bell said: "We're not saying that we can't be newsworthy. We're saying that our child is not newsworthy." California Senate Bill 606 passed in 2013, with testimony by actresses Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur (), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur () and colloquially referred to as KL, is a federal territory and the ceremonial, legislative and judicial capital city of Malaysia. It is one of the fastest growing cities in Asia and the largest city in Malaysia, covering an area of with a census population of 1,982,112 . Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.564 million people . It is among the fastest growing metropolitan regions in Southeast Asia, both in population and economic development.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The city serves as the cultural, financial, and economic centre of Malaysia. It is also home to the Parliament of Malaysia, and the Istana Negara, the official residence of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (monarch of Malaysia). Kuala Lumpur first developed around 1857 as a town serving the tin mines of the region and served as the capital of Selangor from 1880 until 1978. Kuala Lumpur was the founding capital of the Federation of Malaya and its successor Malaysia, and the city remained the seat of the executive and judicial branches of the Malaysian federal government until these were relocated to Putrajaya in early 1999. However, some sections of the political bodies still remain in Kuala Lumpur.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur is one of the three federal territories of Malaysia, enclaved within the state of Selangor, on the central west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Since the 1990s, the city has played host to many international sporting, political and cultural events including the 1998 Commonwealth Games and the 2017 Southeast Asian Games. Kuala Lumpur has undergone rapid development in recent decades and is home to the tallest twin buildings in the world, the Petronas Towers, which have since become an iconic symbol of Malaysian development.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The city, as well as Petaling Jaya and a few other cities in Malaysia is well connected with the RM31 billion MRT system. Residents of the city can also travel to other parts of Malaysia through KL Sentral.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur is one of the leading cities in the world for tourism and shopping, the 6th most-visited city in the world in 2019. The city houses three of the world's ten largest shopping malls.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur ranks 70th in the world and second in Southeast Asia for Economist Intelligence Unit's Global Liveability Ranking and ninth in ASPAC and second in Southeast Asia for KPMG's Leading Technology Innovation Hub 2021. Kuala Lumpur was named World Book Capital 2020 by UNESCO.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur means "muddy confluence" in Malay; "Kuala" is the point where two rivers join or an estuary, and "lumpur" means "mud". One suggestion is that it was named after Sungai Lumpur ("muddy river"); in the 1820s a place named "Sungei Lumpoor" was said to be the most important tin-producing settlement up the Klang River. However this derivation does not account for this: Kuala Lumpur lies at the confluence of Gombak River and Klang River, and therefore should be named Kuala Gombak, since the "kuala" is typically named after the river that joins a larger river or the sea. Some have argued that Sungai Lumpur in fact extended down to the confluence and therefore the point where it joined the Klang River would be Kuala Lumpur, although this Sungai Lumpur is said to be another river joining the Klang River upstream from the Gombak confluence, or perhaps located to the north of the Batu Caves area.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: It has also been proposed that Kuala Lumpur was originally named Pengkalan Lumpur ("muddy landing place") in the same way that Klang was once called Pengkalan Batu ("stone landing place"), but became corrupted into Kuala Lumpur. Another theory says that it was initially a Cantonese word, "lam-pa", meaning 'flooded jungle' or 'decayed jungle'. There is no firm contemporary evidence for these suggestions other than anecdotes. The name may also be a corrupted form of an earlier forgotten name.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Nobody specifically knows who founded or named Kuala Lumpur. Chinese miners were involved in tin mining up the Selangor River in the 1840s about north of present-day Kuala Lumpur, and Mandailing Sumatrans led by and Sutan Puasa were also involved in tin mining and trade in the Ulu Klang region before 1860, and Sumatrans may have settled in the upper reaches of Klang River in the first quarter of the 19th century, or possibly earlier. Kuala Lumpur was originally a small hamlet of just a few houses and shops at the confluence of the Sungai Gombak and Sungai Klang (Klang River). Kuala Lumpur became established as a town circa 1857, when the Malay Chief of Klang, Raja Abdullah bin Raja Jaafar, aided by his brother Raja Juma'at of Lukut, raised funds from Malaccan Chinese businessmen to hire Chinese miners from Lukut to open new tin mines there. The miners landed at Kuala Lumpur and continued on foot to Ampang, where they opened the first mine. Kuala Lumpur was the furthest point up the Klang River to which supplies could conveniently be brought by boat, and therefore became a collection and dispersal point serving the tin mines.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Despite a high death toll from the malarial conditions of the jungle, the Ampang mines succeeded, and exported the first tin in 1859. At that time, Sutan Puasa was already trading near Ampang. Two traders from Lukut, Hiu Siew and Yap Ah Sze, arrived in Kuala Lumpur and set up shops to sell provisions to miners in exchange for tin. The town, spurred on by tin-mining, started to develop around Old Market Square (Medan Pasar), with roads radiating out towards Ampang as well as Pudu and Batu (the destinations became the names of these roads: Ampang Road, Pudu Road, and Batu Road), where miners had also begun to settle in, and Petaling and Damansara. The miners formed gangs and the gangs frequently fought in this period, particularly factions of Kuala Lumpur and Kanching, mainly over control of the best tin mines. Leaders of the Chinese community were conferred the title of Kapitan Cina (Chinese headman) by the Malay chief, and Hiu Siew, the early Chinese trader, became the first Kapitan of Kuala Lumpur. The third Chinese Kapitan of Kuala Lumpur, Yap Ah Loy, was appointed in 1868.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Important Malay figures of early Kuala Lumpur also included Haji Mohamed Tahir, who became the Dato Dagang ("chief of traders"). The Minangkabaus of Sumatra became another important group who traded and established tobacco plantations in the area. Notable Minangkabaus included their headman, Dato' Sati, Utsman Abdullah, and Haji Mohamed Taib, who was involved in the early development of Kampung Baru. The Minangkabaus were also significant socio-religious figures, for example Utsman bin Abdullah was the first kadi of Kuala Lumpur, as well as Muhammad Nur bin Ismail.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Early Kuala Lumpur was a small town that suffered from many social and political problems – the buildings were made of wood and 'atap' (palm frond thatching). The buildings were prone to catching fire, and due to a lack of proper sanitation the town was plagued with diseases. It also suffered from a constant threat of flooding due to its location. The town became embroiled in the Selangor Civil War in part over control of revenue from the tin mines. Yap Ah Loy allied himself with and the Hai San secret society, they fought against a rival secret society, Ghee Hin, whom allied themselves with Raja Mahdi. Raja Asal and Sutan Puasa switched sides to Raja Mahdi, and Kuala Lumpur was captured in 1872 and burnt to the ground. Yap escaped to Klang where he assembled another fighting force and recaptured Kuala Lumpur in March 1873, defeating Raja Mahdi's forces with the help of fighters from Pahang. The war and other setbacks, such as dropping tin prices, led to a slump. A major outbreak of cholera caused many to flee. The slump lasted until late 1879, when rising prices for tin allowed the town to recover. In late 1881, the town was severely flooded, after a fire that had destroyed the entire town in January. The town was rebuilt a few times and thrived, due in large part to Yap Ah Loy. Yap, together with Frank Swettenham who was appointed the Resident in 1882, were the two most important figures of early Kuala Lumpur with Swettenham credited with its rapid growth and development and its transformation into a major urban centre.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The early Chinese and Malay settled along the east bank of the Klang River. The Chinese mainly settled around the commercial centre of Market Square. The Malays, and later Indian Chettiars and Muslims, resided in the Java Street area, now Jalan Tun Perak. In 1880, the colonial administration moved the state capital of Selangor from Klang to the more strategically advantageous Kuala Lumpur, and British Resident William Bloomfield Douglas decided to locate the government buildings and living quarters to the west of the river. Government offices and a new police headquarters were built on Bukit Aman, and the Padang initially created for police training. The Padang, now known as Merdeka Square, would later become the centre of the British administrative offices when the colonial government offices moved to the Sultan Abdul Samad Building in 1897.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Frank Swettenham, on becoming the British Resident, began improving the town by cleaning up the streets. He also stipulated in 1884 that buildings should be constructed of brick and tile so that they would be less flammable, and that the town be rebuilt with wider streets to reduce fire risk. Kapitan Yap Ah Loy bought a sprawling piece of real estate to set up a brick factory for the rebuilding of Kuala Lumpur, the eponymous Brickfields. Demolished "atap" buildings were replaced with brick and tile buildings, and many of the new brick buildings had "five-foot ways" and Chinese carpentry work. This resulted in a distinct eclectic shop house architecture typical to this region. Kapitan Yap Ah Loy expanded road access, linking tin mines with the city with the main arterial routes of the present Ampang Road, Pudu Road and Petaling Street. As Chinese Kapitan, he held wide powers on a par with Malay community leaders. Law reforms were implemented and new legal measures introduced to the assembly. Yap also presided over a small claims court. With a police force of six, he was able to uphold the rule of law, constructing a prison that could accommodate sixty prisoners at a time. Yap Ah Loy also built Kuala Lumpur's first school and a major tapioca mill in Petaling Street, in which the Selangor's Sultan Abdul Samad held an interest.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: A railway line between Kuala Lumpur and Klang, initiated by Swettenham and completed in 1886, increased access and resulted in rapid growth. The population grew from 4,500 in 1884 to 20,000 in 1890. As development intensified in the 1880s, putting pressure on sanitation, waste disposal and other health measures. A Sanitary Board created on 14 May 1890 was responsible for sanitation, road upkeep, street lighting, and other functions. This would eventually become the Kuala Lumpur Municipal Council. In 1896, Kuala Lumpur was chosen as the capital of the newly formed Federated Malay States.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur expanded considerably in the 20th century. It was in 1895, but was extended to encompass in 1903. By the time it became a municipality in 1948 it had expanded to , and then to in 1974 as a Federal Territory.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The development of a rubber industry in Selangor fueled by the demand for car tyres in the early 20th century led to a boom, and the population of Kuala Lumpur increased from 30,000 in 1900 to 80,000 in 1920. The commercial activities of Kuala Lumpur had been run to a large extent by Chinese businessmen such as Loke Yew, who was then the richest and most influential Chinese in Kuala Lumpur. The growth of the rubber industry led to an influx of foreign capital and planters, with new companies and industries becoming established in Kuala Lumpur, and other companies previously based elsewhere also found a presence here.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: During World War II, Kuala Lumpur was captured by the Imperial Japanese Army on 11 January 1942. Despite suffering little damage during the course of the battle, the wartime occupation of the city resulted in significant loss of lives; at least 5,000 Chinese were killed in Kuala Lumpur in just a few weeks of occupation by Japanese forces, and thousands of Indians were sent as forced labour to work on the Burma Railway where many died. They occupied the city until 15 August 1945, when the commander in chief of the Japanese Seventh Area Army in Singapore and Malaysia, Seishirō Itagaki, surrendered to the British administration following the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Kuala Lumpur grew during the war, and continued after the war during the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960), during which Malaya was preoccupied with a communist insurgency and New Villages were established on the outskirts of the city.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The first municipal election in Kuala Lumpur was held on 16 February 1952. An "ad hoc" alliance between the Malay UMNO and Chinese MCA party candidates won a majority of the seats, and this led to the formation of the Alliance Party (later the Barisan Nasional). On 31 August 1957, the Federation of Malaya gained its independence from British rule. The British flag was lowered and the Malayan flag raised for the first time at the Padang at midnight on 30 August 1957, and on the morning of 31 August, the ceremony for the Declaration of Independence was held at the Merdeka Stadium by the first Prime Minister of Malaya, Tunku Abdul Rahman. Kuala Lumpur remained the capital after the formation of Malaysia on 16 September 1963. The Malaysian Houses of Parliament were completed at the edge of the Lake Gardens in 1963.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur had seen a number of civil disturbances over the years. A riot in 1897 was a relatively minor affair that began with the confiscation of faulty "dacing" (a scale used by traders), and in 1912, a more serious disturbance called the "tauchang" riot began during the Chinese New Year with the cutting of pigtails and ended with rioting and factional fighting lasting a number of days. The worst rioting on record in Malaysia, however, occurred on 13 May 1969, when race riots broke out in Kuala Lumpur. The so-called 13 May Incident included violent conflicts between members of the Malay and the Chinese communities, the result of Malaysian dissatisfaction with their socio-political status. The riots caused the deaths of 196 people, according to official figures, and led to major changes in the country's economic policy to promote and prioritise Malay economic development over that of other ethnicities.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur achieved city status on 1 February 1972, becoming the first settlement in Malaysia to be granted the status after independence. Later, on 1 February 1974, Kuala Lumpur became a federal territory. The territory of Kuala Lumpur expanded to 96 square miles by absorbing the surrounding areas. Kuala Lumpur ceded from Selangor to be directly controlled by the central government, and it ceased to be capital of Selangor in 1978 after the city of Shah Alam was declared the new state capital.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: On 14 May 1990, Kuala Lumpur celebrated the centennial of the local council. The new federal territory Kuala Lumpur flag and anthem were introduced. Putrajaya was declared a Federal Territory on 1 February 2001, as well as the seat of the federal government. The administrative and judicial functions of the government were shifted from Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya. Kuala Lumpur however still retained its legislative function, and remained the home of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (Constitutional King).


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: From the 1990s onwards, major urban developments in the Klang Valley extended the Kuala Lumpur metropolitan area. This area, known as Greater Kuala Lumpur, extends from the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur westward to Port Klang, east to the edge of the Titiwangsa Mountains as well as to the north and south. The area covers other administratively separate towns and cities such as Klang, Shah Alam, Putrajaya and others, and is served by the Klang Valley Integrated Transit System. Notable projects undertaken within Kuala Lumpur itself include the development of a new Kuala Lumpur City Centre around Jalan Ampang and the Petronas Towers.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The geography of Kuala Lumpur is characterised by the huge Klang Valley, bordered by the Titiwangsa Mountains in the east, several minor ranges in the north and the south, and the Strait of Malacca in the west. Kuala Lumpur is a Malay term that translates to "muddy confluence" and is located at the confluence of the Klang and Gombak rivers.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Located in the centre of Selangor state, Kuala Lumpur was a territory of Selangor State Government. In 1974, Kuala Lumpur was split off from Selangor to form the first Federal Territory governed directly by the Malaysian federal government. Its location in the most developed state on the west coast of peninsular Malaysia, which has a wider stretch of flat land than the east coast, has helped it develop faster than other cities in Malaysia. The municipality covers an area of , with an average elevation of .


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Protected by the Titiwangsa Range in the east and Indonesia's Sumatra Island in the west, Kuala Lumpur is sheltered from strong winds and has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen climate classification "Af"), hot, humid and sunny, with abundant rainfall, especially during the northeast monsoon season from October to March. Temperatures tend to remain constant. Maximums hover between and sometimes topping , while minimums hover between and have never fallen below . Kuala Lumpur typically receives at least of rain annually; June to August are relatively dry, but even then rainfall typically exceeds a month.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Floods are frequent in Kuala Lumpur after heavy downpours, especially in the city centre, because irrigation structure lags behind the intense development in the city. Smoke from forest fires in nearby Sumatra and Kalimantan sometimes casts a haze over the region, and is a major source of pollution, along with open burning, motor vehicle emissions, and construction.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur was administered by a corporation sole called the Federal Capital Commissioner from April 1, 1961, until it was awarded city status in 1972, after which executive power transferred to the Lord Mayor ("Datuk Bandar"). Thirteen mayors have been appointed since then. The current mayor is Datuk Mahadi Che Ngah, who has been in office since October 1, 2020.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The local administration is carried out by the Kuala Lumpur City Hall, an agency under the Federal Territories Ministry of Malaysia. It is responsible for public health and sanitation, waste removal and management, town planning, environmental protection and building control, social and economic development, and general maintenance functions of urban infrastructure. Executive power lies with the mayor in the city hall, who is appointed for three years by the Federal Territories Minister. This system of appointing the mayor has been in place ever since the local government elections were suspended in 1970.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur's eleven parliamentary constituencies, with estimated population and percentage of the total, are congruent with administrative subdivisions under the authority of the Kuala Lumpur City Hall authority. These 11 districts can be divided into 29 subdistricts.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur is home to the Parliament of Malaysia. The federal Constitution stipulates the three branches of the Malaysian government: the Executive, Judiciary and Legislative branches. The Parliament consists of the Dewan Negara (Upper House / House of Senate) and Dewan Rakyat (Lower House / House of Representatives).


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur and its surrounding urban areas form the most industrialised and economically, the fastest-growing region in Malaysia. Despite the relocation of federal government administration to Putrajaya, certain government institutions such as Bank Negara Malaysia ("National Bank of Malaysia"), Companies Commission of Malaysia and Securities Commission as well as most embassies and diplomatic missions have remained in the city. The city remains the economic and business hub of the country. Kuala Lumpur is a centre for finance, insurance, real estate, media and the arts of Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur is rated the only global city in Malaysia, according to the Globalization and World Cities Study Group and Network (GaWC). The infrastructure development in the surrounding areas such as the Kuala Lumpur International Airport at Sepang, the creation of the Multimedia Super Corridor and the expansion of Port Klang further reinforce the economic significance of the city.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Bursa Malaysia, or the Malaysia Exchange, is based in the city and forms one of its core economic activities. As of 5 July 2013, the market capitalisation stood at US$505.67 billion.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The gross domestic product (GDP) for Kuala Lumpur is estimated at RM73,536 million in 2008 with an average annual growth rate of 5.9 percent. By 2015, the GDP had reached RM160,388 million, representing 15.1% of the total GDP of Malaysia. The per capita GDP for Kuala Lumpur in 2013 was RM79,752 with an average annual growth rate of 5.6 percent, and RM94,722 in 2015. Average monthly household income is RM9,073 (~$2,200) as of 2016, growing at a pace of approximately 6% a year. The service sector, comprising finance, insurance, real estate, business services, wholesale and retail trade, restaurants and hotels, transport, storage and communication, utilities, personal services and government services form the largest component of employment, representing about 83.0 percent of the total. The remaining 17 percent comes from manufacturing and construction.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The large service sector is evident in the number of local and foreign banks and insurance companies operating in the city. Kuala Lumpur is poised to become the global Islamic financing hub with an increasing number of financial institutions providing Islamic financing and the strong presence of Gulf financial institutions such as the world's largest Islamic bank, the Al-Rajhi Bank and Kuwait Finance House. Apart from that, the Dow Jones & Company is keen to work with Bursa Malaysia to set up Islamic Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs), which would help raise Malaysia's profile in the Gulf. The city has a large number of foreign corporations and is also host to many multi national companies' regional offices or support centres, particularly for finance and accounting, and information technology functions. Most of the country's largest companies have their headquarters here, and as of December 2007 and excluding Petronas, there are 14 companies that are listed in Forbes 2000 based in Kuala Lumpur.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Other important economic activities in the city are education and health services. Kuala Lumpur also has advantages stemming from the high concentration of educational institutions that provide a wide-ranging of courses. Numerous public and private medical specialist centres and hospitals in the city offer general health services, and a wide range of specialist surgery and treatment that caters to locals and tourists.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: There has been growing emphasis on expanding the economic scope of the city in other service activities, such as research and development, which support the rest of the economy of Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur has been home for years to important research centres such as the Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia, the Forest Research Institute Malaysia and the Institute of Medical Research. A new financial district for Kuala Lumpur is currently under construction: the Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), formerly known as Kuala Lumpur International Financial District (KLIFD). The TRX's landmark and prominent building is The Exchange 106 tower. The 70-acre development will be situated in the heart of Kuala Lumpur and will serve international finance and business opportunities. The new financial hub is a strategic enabler of the Malaysian government's Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), an initiative by the Malaysian government to turn Malaysia into a high income economy nation.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Tourism plays an important role in the city's service-driven economy. Many large worldwide hotel chains have a presence in the city. One of the oldest hotels is the Hotel Majestic. Kuala Lumpur is the sixth most visited city in the world, with 8.9 million tourists per year. Tourism here is driven by the city's cultural diversity, relatively low costs, and wide gastronomic and shopping variety. MICE tourism, which mainly encompasses conventions— has expanded in recent years to become a vital component of the industry, and is expected to grow further once the Malaysian government's Economic Transformation Programme kicks in, and with the completion of a new 93,000 square meter-size MATRADE Centre in 2014. The MATRADE agency is also the owner of the Malaysia International Trade And Exhibition Centre (MITEC), the largest trade and exhibition centre of Malaysia, which is a component of the larger KL Metropolis development situated in the suburb of Segambut. Another notable trend is the increased presence of budget hotels in the city.The major tourist destinations in Kuala Lumpur include the Petronas Twin Towers, the Bukit Bintang shopping district, the Kuala Lumpur Tower, Petaling Street (Chinatown), the Merdeka Square, the Kuala Lumpur railway station, the House of Parliament building, the National Palace ("Istana Negara"), the National Planetarium, the National Science Centre, the National Art Gallery ("Balai Seni Negara"), the National Theatre ("Istana Budaya"), the National Museum, the Royal Museum, the National Textile Museum, Islamic Arts Museum, Telekom Museum, Royal Malaysian Police Museum, the National Mosque of Malaysia ("Masjid Negara"), Federal Territory Mosque ("Masjid Wilayah"), Sultan Abdul Samad Building, DBKL City Theatre ("Panggung Bandaraya"), Medan Pasar, Central Market, KL Bird Park, KL Butterfly Park, Aquaria KLCC, River of Life KL, Saloma Link, the National Monument, and religious sites such as the Sultan Abdul Samad Jamek Mosque, Thean Hou Temple and Buddhist Maha Vihara in Brickfields. Kuala Lumpur plays host to many cultural festivals such as the Thaipusam procession at the Sri Mahamariamman Temple. Every year during the Thaipusam celebration, a silver chariot carrying the statue of Lord Muruga together with his consort Valli and Teivayanni would be paraded through the city beginning at the temple all the way to Batu Caves in the neighboring Gombak, Selangor.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The entertainment hub of the city is mainly centred in the Golden Triangle encompassing" Jalan P. Ramlee", "Jalan Sultan Ismail", "Jalan Bukit Bintang", Ampang Road and Bintang Walk as well as Kuala Lumpur's largest nightlife and entertainment hotspot, TREC KL. Trendy nightclubs, bars and lounges, such as Marini's on 57, Skybar at Traders Hotel, the Beach Club, Espanda, the Hakka Republic Wine Bar & Restaurant, Hard Rock Cafe, the Luna Bar, Nuovo, Rum Jungle, No Black Tie, the Thai Club, Zion Club, Zouk KL, Club Kyō, Dragonfly KL and many others are located here.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur alone has 66 shopping malls and is the retail and fashion hub of both Malaysia and Southeast Asia. Shopping in Malaysia contributed RM7.7 billion (US$2.26 billion) or 20.8 percent of the RM31.9 billion tourism receipts in 2006.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Suria KLCC is one of Malaysia's premier upscale shopping destinations due to its location beneath the Petronas Twin Towers.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Apart from Suria KLCC, the Bukit Bintang district has the highest concentration of shopping malls in Kuala Lumpur. It includes: Pavilion KL, Fahrenheit 88, Plaza Low Yat, Berjaya Times Square, Lot 10, Sungei Wang Plaza, Starhill Gallery, Lalaport BBCC, Quill City Mall and Avenue K. Changkat area of Bukit Bintang hosts various cafes, alfresco dining outlets, illegal activities such as prostitution and more. It is best known as one of the red-light districts in Kuala Lumpur. Bangsar district also has a few shopping complexes, including Bangsar Village, Bangsar Shopping Centre, KL Gateway Mall, Bangsar South, KL Eco City Mall, The Gardens and Mid Valley Megamall.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Apart from shopping complexes, Kuala Lumpur has designated numerous zones in the city to market locally manufactured products such as textiles, fabrics and handicrafts. The Chinatown of Kuala Lumpur, commonly known as Petaling Street, is one of them. Chinatown features many pre-independence buildings with Straits Chinese and colonial architectural influences.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Since 2000, the Malaysian Ministry of Tourism introduced a mega sale event for shopping in Malaysia. The mega sale event is held three times a year – in March, May and December – in which all shopping malls are encouraged to participate to boost Kuala Lumpur as a leading shopping destination in Asia which has been maintained until present with new mega sales.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur is the most populous city in Malaysia, with a population of 1.98 million in the city proper . It has a population density of , and is the most densely populated administrative district in Malaysia. Residents of the city are colloquially known as KLites. Kuala Lumpur is also the centre of the wider Klang Valley metropolitan area covering Petaling Jaya, Klang, Subang Jaya, Puchong, Shah Alam, and Gombak, with an estimated metropolitan population of 7.25 million .


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur's heterogeneous populace includes the country's three major ethnic groups: the Malays, the Chinese and the Indians, although the city also has a mix of different cultures including Eurasians, Kadazans, Ibans and other indigenous races from around Malaysia.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Historically Kuala Lumpur was a predominantly Chinese city, although more recently the Bumiputera component of the city has grown substantially and they are now the dominant group. The Kuala Lumpur of 1872 beside the Klang River was described by Frank Swettenham as a "purely Chinese village", although a Malay stockade already existed at Bukit Nanas at that time. By 1875, after participation in the Selangor Civil War by Pahang Malays had ended, Swettenham noted Malay quarters near the Chinese area in a sketch map he had drawn. There were said to be 1,000 Chinese and 700 Malays in the town in this period. Many of the Malays may have settled in Kuala Lumpur after the war. The population of Kuala Lumpur had increased to around three thousand in 1880 when it was made the capital of Selangor. A significant component of the Malay population in Kuala Lumpur of this period consisted of Malays recruited by the British in 1880, mostly from rural Malacca, to establish a police force of 2–300, many of whom brought their families. Many of the Malays were originally from the other islands of Malay Archipelago i.e. Sumatra and Java. The Mandailings, the Minangkabaus, Javanese, and Buginese began arriving in Kuala Lumpur in the 19th century, while the Acehnese arrived in the late 20th century. In the following decades that saw the rebuilding of the town, it grew considerably with a large influx of immigrants, due in large part to the construction of a railway line in 1886 connecting Kuala Lumpur and Klang.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: A census in 1891 of uncertain accuracy gave a figure of 43,796 inhabitants, 79% of whom were Chinese (71% of the Chinese were Hakka 客家人), 14% Malay, and 6% Indian. Another perhaps more accurate estimate put the population of Kuala Lumpur in 1890 at 20,000. The rubber boom in the early 20th century led to a further increase in population, from 30,000 in 1900 to 80,000 in 1920. In 1931, 61% of Kuala Lumpur's 111,418 inhabitants were Chinese, and in 1947 63.5%. The Malays however began to settle in Kuala Lumpur in significant numbers, in part due to government employment, as well as the expansion of the city that absorbed the surrounding rural areas where many Malays lived. Between 1947 and 1957 the population of Malays in Kuala Lumpur increased from 12.5 to 15%, while the proportion of Chinese dropped. The process continued after Malayan independence with the growth of a largely Malay civil service, and later the implementation of the New Economic Policy which encouraged Malay participation in urban industries and business. In 1980 the population of Kuala Lumpur had reached over a million, with 52% Chinese, 33% Malay, and 15% Indian. From 1980 to 2000 the number of Bumiputeras increased by 77%, but the Chinese still outnumbered the Bumiputeras in Kuala Lumpur in the 2000 census at 43% compared to 38%. By the 2010 census, according to the Department of Statistics and excluding non-citizens, the Malay population in Kuala Lumpur had increased to 44.7% (45.9% Bumiputera), exceeding the Chinese population of 43.2%. In the 2020 census, the percentage of the Bumiputera population in Kuala Lumpur had reached around 47.7%, with the Chinese population at 41.6% and Indians 10.0%.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: A notable phenomenon in recent times has been the increased portion of foreign residents in Kuala Lumpur, which rose from 1% of the city's population in 1980 to about 8% in the 2000 census, 9.4% in 2010, and 10.5% in the 2020 census. These figures also do not include a significant number of illegal immigrants. Kuala Lumpur's rapid development has triggered a huge influx of low-skilled foreign workers from Indonesia, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia into Malaysia, many of whom enter the country illegally or without proper permits.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Birth rates in Kuala Lumpur have declined and resulted in a lower proportion of young people – the proportion of those below 15 years old fell from 33% in 1980 to slightly less than 27% in 2000. On the other hand, the working age group of 15–59 increased from 63% in 1980 to 67% in 2000. The elderly age group, 60 years old and above has increased from 4% in 1980 and 1991 to 6% in 2000.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur is pluralistic and religiously diverse. The city has many places of worship catering to the multi-religious population. Islam is practised primarily by the Malays, the Indian Muslim communities and a small number of Chinese Muslims. Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism are practised mainly among the Chinese. Indians traditionally adhere to Hinduism. Some Chinese and Indians also subscribe to Christianity.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: As of the 2010 Census, the population of Kuala Lumpur was 46.4% Muslim, 35.7% Buddhist, 8.5% Hindu, 5.8% Christian, 1.4% of unknown affiliations, 1.1% Taoist or Chinese religion adherent, 0.6% follower of other religions, and 0.5% non-religious.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur is one of the three states where less than 50% of the population are self-identified Muslims, the other two being Penang and Sarawak.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Statistics from the 2010 Census indicate that 87.4% of the Chinese population identify as Buddhists, with significant minorities of adherents identifying as Christians (7.9%), Chinese folk religions (2.7%) and Muslims (0.6%). The majority of the Indian population identify as Hindus (81.1%), with a significant minorities of identifying as Christians (7.8%), Muslims (4.9%) and Buddhists (2.1%). The non-Malay "bumiputera" community are predominantly Christians (44.9%), with significant minorities identifying as Muslims (31.2%) and Buddhists (13.5%). All bumiputera Malays are Muslim due to the criterion in the definition of a Malay in the Malaysian constitution that they should adhere to Islam.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Bahasa Malaysia is the principal language in Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur residents are generally literate in English, with a large proportion adopting it as their first language. Malaysian English is widely used. It has a strong presence, especially in business, and is taught as a compulsory language in schools. Cantonese, Hokkien and Mandarin are prominent, as they are spoken by the local majority Chinese population. Another major Chinese dialect spoken is Hakka. While Tamil is dominant amongst the local Indian population, other Indian languages spoken by minorities include Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, and Hindi. Besides Malay, there are a variety of languages spoken by people of Indonesian descent, such as Minangkabau and Javanese. There are also speakers of Arabic and other languages.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The architecture of Kuala Lumpur is a mixture of old colonial influences, Asian traditions, Malay Islamic inspirations, modern, and postmodern architecture. A relatively young city compared with other Southeast Asian capitals such as Bangkok, Jakarta and Manila, most of Kuala Lumpur's notable colonial-era buildings were built toward the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries. These buildings were designed in a number of styles – Mughal/Moorish Revival, Mock Tudor, Neo-Gothic or Grecian-Spanish style or architecture. Most of the styling has been modified to use local resources and adapted to the local climate, which is hot and humid all year around. A significant architect of the early period is Arthur Benison Hubback who designed a number of the colonial-era buildings including the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station and Jamek Mosque.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Prior to the Second World War, many shophouses, usually two stories with functional shops on the ground floor and separate residential spaces upstairs, were built around the old city centre. These shop-houses drew inspiration from Straits Chinese and European traditions. Some of these shophouses have made way for new developments but there are still many standing today in the Medan Pasar Besar (Old Market Square), Chinatown, Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman, Jalan Doraisamy, Bukit Bintang and Tengkat Tong Shin areas.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Independence coupled with rapid economic growth from the 1970s to the 1990s and with Islam being the official religion in the country, has resulted in the construction of buildings with a more local and Islamic flavour arise around the city. Many of these buildings derive their design from traditional Malay items such as the songkok and the keris. Some of these buildings have Islamic geometric motifs integrated into the designs of the building, due to Islamic restrictions on imitating nature through drawings. Examples of these buildings are Telekom Tower, Maybank Tower, Dayabumi Complex, and the Islamic Centre. Some buildings such as the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia and National Planetarium have been built to masquerade as a place of worship, complete with dome and minaret, when in fact they are places of science and knowledge. The Petronas Towers are the tallest twin buildings in the world and the tallest buildings in the country. They were designed to resemble motifs found in Islamic art.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Late modern and postmodern architecture began to appear in the late-1990s and early-2000s. With economic development, old buildings such as Bok House have been razed to make way for new ones. Buildings with all-glass shells exist throughout the city, with the most prominent examples being the Petronas Towers and Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Kuala Lumpur's central business district today has shifted to the Kuala Lumpur city centre (KLCC) where many new and tall buildings with modern and postmodern architecture fill the skyline. According to the World Tallest 50 Urban Agglomeration 2010 Projection by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Kuala Lumpur ranks 10th among cities that have most buildings above 100 metres with a combined height of 34,035 metres from its 244 high rise buildings.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The Perdana Botanical Garden or Lake Gardens, a botanical garden, was the first recreational park created in Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian Parliament building is located close by, and Carcosa Seri Negara, which was once the official residence of British colonial administration, is also sited here. The park includes a butterfly park, deer park, orchid garden, a hibiscus garden, and the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, which is the world's largest aviary bird park. Other parks in the city include the ASEAN Sculpture Garden, KLCC Park, Titiwangsa Lake Gardens, Metropolitan Lake Gardens in Kepong, Taman Tasik Permaisuri (Queen's Lake Gardens), Bukit Kiara Botanical Gardens, the equestrian park and West Valley Park near Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI), and Bukit Jalil International Park.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: There are three forest reserves within the city, the Bukit Nanas Forest Reserve in the city centre, the oldest gazetted forest reserve in the country , Bukit Sungai Putih Forest Reserve () and Bukit Sungai Besi Forest Reserve (). Bukit Nanas, in the heart of the city centre, is one of the oldest virgin forests in the world within a city. These residual forest areas are home to a number of fauna species, particularly monkeys, treeshrews, pygmy goats, budgerigars, squirrels and birds.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: According to government statistics, Kuala Lumpur has a literacy rate of 97.5% in 2000, the highest rate in any state or territory in Malaysia. In Malaysia, Malay is the language of instruction for most subjects while English is a compulsory subject, but , English was still the language of instruction for mathematics and the natural sciences for certain schools. Some schools provide instruction in Mandarin and Tamil for certain subjects.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur contains 14 tertiary education institutions, 79 high schools, 155 elementary schools and 136 kindergartens.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Several institutions in the city are more than 100 years old — such as Bukit Bintang Girls' School (1893–2000, relocated to Taman Shamelin Perkasa in Cheras and renamed GIS Garden International school Seri Bintang Utara), the Victoria Institution (1893); Methodist Girls' School (1896); Methodist Boys' School (1897); Convent Bukit Nanas (1899), St. John's Institution (1904), Confucian Private Secondary School (1906), Kuen Cheng High School (1908), Tsun Jin High School (1913) and Maxwell School (1917).


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur is home to the University of Malaya (UM). Established in 1949, it is the oldest university in Malaysia, and one of the oldest in the region. It was ranked the best university in Malaysia, the 22nd-best in Asia, and third in Southeast Asia in QS World University Rankings 2019. In recent years, the number of international students at the University of Malaya has risen, as a result of increasing efforts made to attract them.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Other universities located in Kuala Lumpur include Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TARUC), UCSI University (UCSI), Taylor's University (TULC), International Medical University (IMU), Open University Malaysia (OUM), Kuala Lumpur University (UniKL), Perdana University (PU), Wawasan Open University (WOU), HELP University and the branch campus of the National University of Malaysia (UKM) and University of Technology Malaysia (UTM). The National Defence University of Malaysia is located at Sungai Besi Army Base, at the southern part of central Kuala Lumpur. It was established to be a major centre for military and defence technology studies. This institution covers studies for the army, navy, and air force.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Greater Kuala Lumpur covers an even more extensive selection of universities including several international branches such as Monash University Malaysia Campus, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus and Xiamen University Malaysia.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur is a hub for cultural activities and events in Malaysia. Among the centres is the National Museum, which is situated along the Mahameru Highway. Its collection comprises artefacts and paintings collected throughout the country. The Islamic Arts Museum, which houses more than seven thousand Islamic artefacts including rare exhibits and a library of Islamic art books, is the largest Islamic arts collection in Southeast Asia. The museum's collection not only concentrates on works from the Middle East, but also includes work from elsewhere in Asia, such as China and Southeast Asia. Kuala Lumpur has a craft complex coupled with a museum that displays a variety of textile, ceramic, metal craft and weaved products. Information on the production process is portrayed in diorama format complete with historical facts, technique and traditionally engineered equipment. Among the processes shown are pottery making, intricate wood carving, silver-smithing, weaving songket cloth, stamping batik patterns on cloth, and boat-making. Royal Selangor has an ultra modern visitor's centre, which allows tours to be conducted through its pewter museum, gallery and factory. In its pewter-smithing workshop, "The School of Hard Knocks", participants are taught to create their own pewter dish using traditional tools and methods.The premier performing arts venue is the Petronas Philharmonic Hall located underneath the Petronas Towers. The resident orchestra is the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra (MPO), consisting of musicians from all over the world, and features regular concerts, chamber concerts and traditional cultural performances. The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPac) in Sentul West and Damansara Performing Arts Centre (DPac) in Damansara Perdana are two of the most established centres in the country for the performing arts, notably theatre, plays, music, and film screening. It has housed many local productions and has been a supporter of local and regional independent performance artists. The Future Music Festival Asia has been held in the city since 2012, featuring local and international artists.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The National Art Gallery of Malaysia is located on Jalan Temerloh, off Jalan Tun Razak on a site neighbouring the National Theatre (Istana Budaya) and National Library. The architecture of the gallery incorporates elements of traditional Malay architecture, as well as contemporary modern architecture. The National Art Gallery serves as a centre of excellence and is a trustee of the national art heritage. The Petronas Art Gallery, another centre for fine art, is situated in Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC). The Ilham Tower Gallery near Ampang Park houses exhibitions of works by local and foreign artists.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur holds the Malaysia International Gourmet Festival annually. Another event hosted annually by the city is the Kuala Lumpur Fashion Week, which includes international brands and local designers. Also, Kuala Lumpur was designated as the World Book Capital for 2020 by UNESCO.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur also is becoming the centre for new media, innovation and creative industry development in the region and hosts the international creative industry event Kreative.Asia, which gathers local, regional and international experts in the creative industry who are involved in the creation, development and delivery of interactive content, arts, community and applications. Kuala Lumpur is at the forefront of the convergence of media, art, culture and communications.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur has numerous parks, gardens and open spaces for recreational purposes. Total open space for recreational and sport facilities land use in the city has increased significantly by 169.6 percent from in 1984 to in 2000.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur was touted as one of the host cities for the Formula One World Championship from 1999 to 2017. The open-wheel auto racing A1 Grand Prix was held until the series folded in 2009. The Motorcycle Grand Prix races are held at the Sepang International Circuit in Sepang in the neighbouring state of Selangor. The Formula One event contributed significantly to tourist arrivals and tourism income to Kuala Lumpur. This was evident during the Asian financial crisis in 1998. Despite cities around Asia suffering declining tourist arrivals, in Kuala Lumpur tourist arrivals increased from 6,210,900 in 1997 to 10,221,600 in 2000, or 64.6%. In 2015, the Kuala Lumpur Street Circuit was constructed to host the Kuala Lumpur City Grand Prix motor racing event.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Football is one of the most popular sports in Kuala Lumpur. The Merdeka Tournament is mainly held at Stadium Merdeka. The Stadium Negara is also located right next to it which is also one of the oldest indoor stadiums in the country. The city is also the home of Kuala Lumpur City, which plays in the Malaysia Super League.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur hosted the official Asian Basketball Championship in 1965, 1977 and 1985. The city's basketball supporters cheered Malaysia's national basketball team to a Final Four finish in 1985, the team's best performance to date. Further, the city is home to the Kuala Lumpur Dragons, 2016 Champions of the ASEAN Basketball League. The team plays its home games in the MABA Stadium.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: KL Grand Prix CSI 5*, a five-star international showjumping equestrian event, is held annually in the city. This annual event draws the world's top riders and their prize horses to Malaysia.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Other annual sport events hosted by the city include the KL Tower Run, the KL Tower International BASE Jump Merdeka Circuit and the Kuala Lumpur International Marathon. Kuala Lumpur is also one of the stages of the Tour de Langkawi cycling race.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur has a considerable array of international class sports facilities after hosting the 1998 Commonwealth Games. Many of these facilities, including the main stadium (with running track and a football field), hockey stadium and swimming pools located in the National Sports Complex at Bukit Jalil while a velodrome and more swimming pools are located in Bandar Tun Razak, next to the Taman Tasik Permaisuri Lake Gardens. There are also football fields, local sports complexes, swimming pools and tennis courts scattered around the suburbs. Badminton and 'takraw' courts are usually included in community halls. The AFC House—current headquarters of the Asian Football Confederation—is built on a complex in the Kuala Lumpur suburb of Bukit Jalil.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur has several golf courses including the Kuala Lumpur Golf and Country Club (KLGCC) and the Malaysia Civil Service Golf Club in Kiara and the Berjaya Golf Course at Bukit Jalil. The city also has numerous large private fitness centres run by Celebrity Fitness, Fitness First, True Fitness and major five-star hotels.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur is also the birthplace of Hashing, which began in December 1938 when a group of British colonial officers and expatriates, some from the Selangor Club, began meeting on Monday evenings to run, in a fashion patterned after the traditional British Paper Chase or "Hare and Hounds".


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur hosted the 128th IOC Session in 2015 where the IOC elected Beijing as the host city of the 2022 Winter Olympics and Lausanne as the host city of the 2020 Winter Youth Olympics.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur is the headquarters for Malaysia's state broadcaster Radio Televisyen Malaysia (Angkasapuri), state news agency Bernama (Wisma Bernama), state religious TV Company Alhijrah Media Corporation (Islamic Centre Complex), principal telecommunication service provider – Telekom Malaysia (Telekom Tower), Media Prima Berhad's newspaper division – New Straits Times Press (Balai Berita), the country's main pay satellite television service – Astro (All Asia Broadcast Centre) and newspaper companies such as: China Press, Malaysia Nanban and Makkal Osai.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Apart from functioning as a telecommunication tower, Kuala Lumpur Tower is also an important broadcast centre in the city, transmitting signals of radio and television stations to Kuala Lumpur City and its surrounding area.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur has been featured in aspects of popular culture such as movies, television, music and books. Television series set in Kuala Lumpur include "A Tale of 2 Cities" (starring Rui En and Joanne Peh). Movies set in Kuala Lumpur include "" (starring Jackie Chan and Michelle Yeoh) and "Entrapment" (starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones), in which the Petronas Towers were depicted in flames for a few seconds.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Books set in Kuala Lumpur include "KL 24/7" by Ida M Rahim, Shireen Zainudin and Rizal Zainudin, "My Life As a Fake" by Peter Carey, and "Democracy" by Joan Didion.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: A few notable local films featured Kuala Lumpur as background location, such as "Masam-masam Manis" (1965), "Keluarga Si Comat" (1973), "Jiwa Remaja" (1976), "Abang" (1981), "Matinya Seorang Patriot" (1984), "Kembara Seniman Jalanan" (1986), "Orang Kampung Otak Kimia" (1988), "Hati Bukan Kristal" (1990), "Mat Som" (1990), "Mira Edora" (1990), "Femina" (1993), "Maria Mariana" (1996), "Hanya Kawan" (1997), "KLU" (1999), "Soal Hati" (2000), "KL Menjerit" (2002), "Laila Isabella" (2003), "Gangster" (2005), "Gol & Gincu" (2005), "Remp-it" (2006), "Cinta" (2006), "Anak Halal" (2007) "Evolusi KL Drift" (2008), "Adnan Sempit" (2010), "KL Gangster" (2011), "Kepong Gangster" (2012), "Lagenda Budak Setan 2: Katerina" (2012) and "Kolumpo" (2013). A few local films featured Kuala Lumpur during the historical era, such as "1975: Hati Malaya" (2007), "Petaling Streets Warrior" (2011) and "Tanda Putera" (2013).


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur is mentioned in many songs by local Malaysian artists, such as "Keroncong Kuala Lumpur'" by P. Ramlee, "Kuala Lumpur, Ibu Kota" by Saloma, "Chow Kit Road" by Sudirman Arshad, "Senyumlah Kuala Lumpur" by Alleycats, "Streets of Kuala Lumpur" by Murkyway, "K.L." by Vandal, "Kuala Lumpur" by Poetic Ammo, "Anak Dara" by Azmyl Yunor, "KL"' by Too Phat, "Kotarayaku" by Hujan and Altimet, and "Lagu Untuk Kuala Lumpur" by Tom.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Video games have also been set in Kuala Lumpur, including three levels of "" and two tracks in the racing game "Burnout Dominator".


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: A reality game show set in Kuala Lumpur from February until April 2013 was aired on AXN Asia. "The Apprentice Asia" was launched on 22 May 2013.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: As in most other Asian cities, driving is the main commuting choice in Kuala Lumpur. Every part of the city is well connected with highways. Kuala Lumpur has a comprehensive road network with more transportation development planned. Public transportation covers a variety of transport modes such as bus, rail and taxi. Despite efforts to promote public transport, utilisation rates are low, 16 percent of the population in 2006. However, public transport utilisation will increase with the expansion of the rail network, operated by Prasarana Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley via its subsidiaries Rapid Rail and Rapid Bus, using the Rapid KL brand name. Since the take over from Intrakota Komposit Sdn Bhd, Prasarana Malaysia has redrawn the entire bus network of Kuala Lumpur and the Klang Valley metropolitan area to increase passenger numbers and improve Kuala Lumpur's public transport system. Prasarana Malaysia has adopted the hub and spoke system to provide greater connectivity, and reduce the need for more buses. KL Sentral was added on 16 April 2001 and served as the new transport hub of the Klang Valley Integrated Transit System.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The KTM Komuter, a commuter rail service, was introduced in 1995 as the first rail transit system to provide local rail services in Kuala Lumpur and the surrounding Klang Valley suburban areas. Services were later expanded to other parts of Malaysia with the introduction of the Northern and Southern sectors. KTM Komuter's 175 km (109 mi) network in the Central Sector has 53 stations. It consists of two cross-city routes, namely the Port Klang Line (Tanjung Malim to Port Klang) and Seremban Line (Batu Caves to Pulau Sebang/Tampin). Transfers between the two main lines can be made at any of the four stations on the central core: KL Sentral, Kuala Lumpur, Bank Negara and Putra.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Light Rapid Transit (LRT) Malaysia is the medium-capacity rail lines in the Klang Valley, Malaysia. The first LRT line was opened in 1996 and the system has since expanded to three lines, which opened in 1998 and 1999. Along with the MRT, the LRT is constructed and owned by the Prasarana, with operating concessions currently run by Rapid KL and Rapid Rail. In 2006, the government announced the Sri Petaling Line and Kelana Jaya line extension projects. Unlike the original line, which used the fixed-block signalling block system, the extension uses the communications-based train control (CBTC) signaling system.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Malaysia is a heavy rail rapid transit system that constitutes the bulk of the railway network in Kuala Lumpur and the rest of the Klang Valley. The first section of the MRT opened on 16 December 2016, and the network has since grown rapidly in accordance with Malaysia's aim of developing a comprehensive rail network as the backbone of the country's public transportation system. The network consists of three lines – the MRT Circle Line, looping around Kuala Lumpur, the MRT Kajang Line and the MRT Putrajaya Line, covering a 20 km radius in the southeast–northwest direction from the city centre, will integrate the current rapid transit system and serve high-density areas which are currently not serviced by any rapid transit system. About 90 new stations are planned in this "wheel and spoke" concept, out of which 26 in the city centre will be underground. Ridership capacity will be 2 million passengers per day.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: The KL Monorail opened on 31 August 2003 with 11 stations running on two parallel elevated tracks. The line is numbered and coloured light green on official transit maps. It connects the KL Sentral transport hub in the south and Titiwangsa in the north with the "Golden Triangle", a commercial, shopping, and entertainment area comprising Bukit Bintang, Imbi, Sultan Ismail, and Raja Chulan.


title: Kuala Lumpur

text: Kuala Lumpur is served by two airports. The main airport, Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at Sepang, Selangor, which is also the aviation hub of Malaysia, is located about south of city. The other airport is Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport, also known as Subang Skypark and served as the main international gateway to Kuala Lumpur from 1965 until KLIA opened in 1998.