A smokeless chimney
Its purpose still a mystery.
Limzh8835 — CC BY-SA 4.0 · CEphoto, Uwe Aranas — CC BY-SA 3.0
A tall red-brick tower standing alone among the trees in the north of the island, a survivor from the time when Labuan was a coal-mining centre under British administration in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when coal dug here fuelled passing steamships. The mystery that draws visitors is that nobody knows for certain what the tower was for: researchers are said to have found no trace of smoke in it, so it may have been a signal or bell tower, or a chimney that was never used. In 1997 excavations revealed twelve layers of brick beneath it, and the tower was restored and strengthened. Beside it a small museum, opened in 2002, tells the story of the Kubong mines and the lives of their workers through photographs and old tools. Entry is free, and it opens daily from eight in the morning to five in the afternoon. It is about fifteen to twenty minutes' drive from the town centre, close to the quiet northern beaches, so make it part of a drive around the island.
Its purpose still a mystery.
A page of Labuan's industrial past.
A tall tower among the trees.
Kubong, northern Labuan, about 15 km from the town centre
No: it is seen from outside only, though you can stand at its base and look at its opening. The museum next door explains its history and the theories about its purpose.