Resembling twin silver rockets, the Petronas Towers are the perfect allegory for the meteoric rise of the city from tin-mining shanty town to 21st-century metropolis. Half of the daily allocation of tickets for 45-minute tours – which take in the Skybridge on the 41st floor and the observation deck on the 86th – are sold online in advance. Otherwise, turn up early to be sure of scoring a ticket to go up.
First stop on the tour is the Skybridge where you can look down 170m as you walk across the glass-walled connection corridor between the two towers. Next you take the lift up to the 86th-floor observation deck to see the city from 370m.
Even though completed back in 1998, the shimmering stainless-steel-clad towers, designed by Argentinian architect César Pelli as the headquarters of the national oil and gas company Petronas, continue to epitomise contemporary KL. The 88-storey twin towers are the tallest pair in the world at nearly 452m and their floor plan is based on an eight-sided star that echoes arabesque patterns. Islamic influences are also evident in each tower's five tiers – representing the five pillars of Islam – and in the 63m masts that crown them, calling to mind the minarets of a mosque and the Star of Islam. They look particularly impressive when illuminated at night.
Last admission is at 8.30pm.