A short walk from town across the Sianok canyon brings you to Koto Gadang, the village famous for silver filigree and for producing an outsized share of Indonesia's twentieth-century intellectuals — the first prime minister Sutan Sjahrir and the writer Agus Salim both came from here. Workshops along the main lane still hammer fine silver wire into earrings, bracelets, and Minangkabau-style ceremonial pieces.
The walk in via the "Great Wall of Koto Gadang", a stair-and-path system built along the canyon rim, takes about an hour each way and is far better than a car ride. The Nurul Iman Mosque, one of the oldest in Indonesia, sits on the village's edge with a tiered roof in classic Minangkabau form.