Klang, also spelled Kelang, is the royal town of Selangor, on the west coast of peninsular Malaysia before Shah Alam. The town is named after the Klang River, which cuts the town in half, and sits at the western end of the Klang Valley.
The royal town of Klang has been a site of human settlement since prehistoric times. Bronze Age drums, axes and other artefacts have been found in the vicinity of the town and within the town itself. A bronze bell dating from the 2nd century BC was found in Klang and is now in the British Museum. Iron age tools called "tulang mawas" ("ape bones") have also been found in Klang. Commanding the approaches to the tin rich Klang Valley, Klang has always been of key strategic importance. It was mentioned as a dependency of other states as early as the 11th century. Klang was also mentioned in the 14th century literary work Nagarakretagama dated to the Majapahit Empire, and the Klang River was already marked and named on the earliest maritime charts of Chinese Admiral Cheng Ho on his visits to Malacca from 1409 to 1433.
