Kota Darul Ehsan Arch

The arch overlooking the Federal Highway before mankind disappeared

The Kota Darul Ehsan Arch is a row of arches symbolizing the border on Malaysian Federal Highway between the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and Malaysian state of Selangor. Completed in 1981 and erected on the Federal Highway, it stands as the largest arch in Malaysia and acts as a commemoration of the cession of Kuala Lumpur to the federal government to form a Federal Territory by Selangor. The arch's design incorporates influences from Moorish architecture, and shares a similar design with the Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, as well as having 2 cannons on each face of the arch. But without humans, will it be able to survive on its own, or will it fall?

1 day after people: With no more vehicles driving on the Federal Highway below, the Kota Darul Ehsan Arch now lookes over the desolate city of Kuala Lumpur. The only traffic it gets is the gusts of wind that occasionally blow by the arch. As night progresses and the arch lights up in a sea of yellow and gray, the local power grid begins to fail, and the archway turns dark and watches the Klang Valley go into darkness forever.

2 weeks after people: The nearby potted plants and trees are slowly growing out of control, which could pose a threat to the archway's existence. Birds make regular stops to the archway's rooftop, sometimes leaving corrosive bird poop. But since the concrete is still not damaged, the supports still stand, for now.

1 month after people: The colors of the Kota Darul Ehsan Arch are slowly beginning to peel off. The 3 domes on the top are beginning to slowly have their concrete supports weaken as rainwater and the humidity slowly work to destroy them.

5 months after people: As plants have reached the bases of all the archway's supports, a massive thunderstorm strikes the entirety of the Klang Valley. As rivers burst their banks and flood most roads, it sweeps away the vehicles on the Federal Highway below and leaves the base of the archway flooded, washing away the 2 cannons at the bottom.. Although the floodwaters don't pose much of a threat, an abandoned gas tanker swept by the floodwaters is heading straight for one of the archway's support columns. As it hits the left side of the arch, the gas inside combusts and the truck explodes, and the left support column is severely weakened with massive cracks forming on the walls. This incident will reduce the lifespan of the archway by a considerable amount.

1 year after people: 1 year has passed since humans have vanished, and the archway is still standing still. Although the left support column is riddled with cracks full of emerging plants, the archway is still recognisable. However, the bright colors of yellow and gray are fading away quickly, and the archway will soon turn light gray in color while the support columns at the bottom weaken.

5 years after people: Another storm strikes the Kota Darul Ehsan Arch, which prooves to be a breaking point for some parts of the archway. As the tower support columns weaken overtime, they become more and more vulnerable to heavy winds, which causes more structural damage. Heavy winds brought on by the storm cause the archway to sway back and forth, creating more cracks and causing one of the white domes on the top to break loose and topple onto the deserted highway below. The heavy winds prove too much for one of the side archways , and it breaks away from the main archway into a pile of rubble. When the storm ends, the arch still remarkably stands, but the cracks of the archway will eventually get the better of the Kota Darul Ehsan Arch.

10 years after people: Situated in between the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur and the state of Selangor, lies the now weakened Kota Darul Ehsan Arch. The cracks formed by previous storms are allowing plants to grow inside them, while the roots act like hydraulic drills that slowly pull the concrete apart. The bright colors that were once of the arch have totally disappeared, leaving it as a crumbling gray concrete archway. But a decade of neglect, the constant corrosion from the torrential rainfall and the tropical humidity of Malaysia, as well as the heavy winds that created most cracks in the archway's support columns will finally put the Kota Darul Ehsan Arch into its place. As another massive downpour strikes and the rivers once again overflow, it leaves the archway's bottom half underwater, exposing it to the raging current of the floodwater. The left side of the archway that suffers the most damage from previous storms, begins to move further forward, making the concrete archway in between the support columns to stretch out in a way they were never designed for, and it breaks apart, and sends the left segment of the arch collapsing into the water. The initial force of the left side of the archway pushing itself away causes the the other 2 support columns to lean forward, and they eventually crack to the point where the supports at the bottom are not holding them up anymore, and the archway leans forward and collapses into the floodwaters below. The prideful archway that showed the border between Kuala Lumpur and the state of Selangor is now non-existent, as the remaining rubble gets washed away by the powerful currents.