Sabah Museum, State museum in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

The Sabah Museum stands at Bukit Istana Lama in Kota Kinabalu on a 17-hectare site. Its main building has a facade of grey concrete panels and a high roofline sloping up from right to left, topped by a row of tall, thin white concrete fins with dark brown panels between them. A broad grey beam angles upward above a red tiled wall section, and the lower level forms a wide flat overhang on grey pillars over a recessed entrance. The complex also holds an ethnobotanic garden, a zoo and a heritage village.

The museum was founded in 1965, starting from a modest collection that gradually grew into a broader institution covering the peoples and natural history of Borneo. Over time, new sections were added to reflect the diversity of communities and environments found across the region.

The museum displays traditional houses from different ethnic groups of Sabah, such as the Bajau and the Murut, which visitors can walk through and explore. These structures give a direct sense of how various communities in the region lived and built their homes.

The museum sits a few kilometers from central Kota Kinabalu and can be reached by car or public transport. Because the site covers a large area with exhibitions across several buildings, arriving early in the day makes it easier to visit at a comfortable pace.

The building opened on 11 April 1984, inaugurated by Sultan Ahmad Shah of Pahang, the seventh Yang di-Pertuan Agong, during a state visit that was his last engagement before his reign ended two weeks later. Its sloping roofline and white concrete fins face a small waterfall and rocks beside the entrance sign.