Georgetown is a city (sort of) on the island of Pulau Pinang, in the state of Penang in Malaysia. Georgetown and Melaka, another city in Malaysia, were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2008.
 Natural Dryer |
 Chew Jetty |
 Chowrasta Pork Shop |
There are many wonderful resources on the web that outline the history of Penang and Georgetown in tremendous detail. A few I recommend are Penang-Traveltips and The Penang Heritage Trust.
Georgetown as Heritage City
While the entire island of Penang is rich with cultural heritage and contains many pre-war buildings with significant cultural value, the area designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site is only a small fragment of the city. What is known as the Core Heritage Zone ecompasses the original city of Georgetown as it was laid out by Sir. Francis Light. Surrounding this Core Zone, is what is termed a Buffer Zone. This area is intended to create a transition between the core cultural area, and the surrounding city. It cannot be understated that these zones are merely there for purposes of UNESCO status, there areas outside these zones are no less rich in cultural history and heritage value then they were in 2007 and anyone visiting Georgetown should not limit themselves to only the UNESCO boundaries. The map below outlines the heritage zones.
Map of the boundaries of the Georgetown World Heritage Site
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