ABSTRACT
The settlement of Melaka was founded approximately 600 years ago, on the site of a grove of emblic (melaka) trees near the mouth of a river feeding into the narrow, strategic strait between Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula. The town grew quickly, and for a little less than a century it was the premiere metropolis in maritime Southeast Asia, a powerful center of trade and culture. After 1511, however, it fell into the hands of a series of conquerors and declined dramatically in power and influence. Today, Melaka (also spelled Malacca) is a relatively minor state capital in the Federation of Malaysia, with virtually no remains surviving from its period of greatest glory.
