The large, informative Museum of North Sumatra (Tues-Sun 8.30am-noon & 1.30-5pm; Rp3500), at Jl Joni 51, 500m east of Jalan SM Raja on the southern side of the Bukit Barisan cemetery, tells the history of North Sumatra, and includes a couple of Arabic gravestones from 8AD and some ancient stone Buddhist sculptures. Eight hundred metres north of the museum on Jalan SM Raja, the black-domed Mesjid Raya (9am-5pm, except prayer times; donation) is one the most recognizable buildings in Sumatra. Designed by a Dutch architect in 1906, it has North African-style arched windows, blue-tiled walls and vivid stained-glass windows. The mosque was commissioned by Sultan Makmun Al-Rasyid of the royal house of Deli and, 200m further west, opposite the end of Jalan Mesjid Raya, stands their Maimoon Palace (daily 8am-5pm; Rp1000), built in 1888 with yellow walls (the traditional Malay colour of royalty), black crescent-surmounted roofs and Moorish archways. The brother of the current sultan still lives here so only two rooms are open to the public, but they are dull and don't justify the entrance fee.

At the northern end of Jalan Pemuda, Jalan Brig Jend A Yani was the centre of colonial Medan and a few early twentieth-century buildings still remain. The weathered Mansion of Tjong A Fie at no. 105 is a beautiful, green-shuttered, two-storey house that was built for the head of the Chinese community in Medan. It's closed to the public, but the dragon-topped gateway is magnificent, with the inner walls featuring some (very faded) portraits of Chinese gods. The fine 1920s Harrison-Crossfield Building , at Jalan Brig Jend A Yani's northern end, was the former headquarters of a rubber exporter and is now the home of the British Consulate. Continuing north along Jalan Balai Kota, you reach the grand, dazzlingly white headquarters of PT Perkebunan IX (a government-run tobacco company), which was commissioned by Jacob Nienhuys in 1869; it's on narrow Jalan Tembakau Deli, 200m north of the Natour Dharma Deli hotel.

In the west of the city, on Jalan H Zainul Arifin, the Sri Mariamman Temple is Medan's oldest and most venerated Hindu shrine. It was built in 1884 and is devoted to the goddess Kali. The temple marks the beginning of the Indian quarter, the Kampung Keling , the largest of its kind in Indonesia. Curiously, this quarter also houses the largest Chinese temple in Sumatra, the Taoist Vihara Gunung Timur (Temple of the Eastern Mountain) which, with its multitude of dragons, wizards, warriors and lotus petals, is tucked away on tiny Jalan Hang Tuah, 500m south of Sri Marriamman.