Alor Setar
state capital of Kedah, Malaysia
Alor Setar (Kedah Malay: Loqstaq), known as Alor Star from 2003 to 2009, is the state capital of Kedah, Malaysia. It is the second-largest city in the state, after Sungai Petani, and one of the most important cities on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. It is home to the third-tallest tower in Malaysia, the Alor Setar Tower.
Its location along the main travel corridor from Malaysia to Thailand has long made it a major transportation hub in the northern Malay Peninsula. Alor Setar sits along the country's longest expressway, located 430 km (270 mi) from Kuala Lumpur and 79 km (49 mi) north of George Town, Penang. From Thailand, the city is easily accessible via the Padang Besar–Sadao Highway, it is 51.8 km (32.2 mi) from Sadao and 106 km (66 mi) from Hat Yai.
The city was originally founded as Kota Setar in 1785. Owing to the long status as the capital of Kedah, Alor Setar is regarded as one of the core cultural centres for the Kedahan Malays. It is also among the key pioneer in the Malayan transportation history, the railway station was commissioned in 1915 followed by its airport in 1929.
Alor Setar is home to the Central State Administration Centre and is the administrative centre of Kota Setar District.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q474868. VIAF identifies the subject as 137190520. The Library of Congress control number is n79010493. Authority coordinates are 6.117, 100.367. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2003, 2009, 1785 and 1915.
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This entry incorporates text from “Alor Setar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.