Fort Cornwallis stands at the northeastern tip of George Town where Francis Light first landed in 1786 to establish the British East India Company's trading post. The star-shaped fortification is the largest surviving British fort in Malaysia. It was built in two stages: a wooden stockade initially, then a brick fort in the 1810s. The cannons that line the ramparts are originals from the colonial period; the most famous is the Seri Rambai, a 17th-century Dutch cannon with a legend attached to it involving fertility.
The fort interior contains a small museum on Penang's colonial history, a powder magazine, and the old lighthouse. Walk the ramparts for views across the strait toward the mainland and down the George Town waterfront. The esplanade immediately outside the fort — shaded by rain trees and facing the sea — was the colonial town's social centre and remains a pleasant spot in the early evening when the heat eases.