Famous landmarks in Singapore

Singapore is a small island country and city in Southeast Asia, at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. A narrow strait separates it from Malaysia to the north, and Indonesia's islands lie to the south. The whole country is one city, also called Singapore, and it is one of the busiest trading ports in the world.

Singapore is famous for its gleaming skyscrapers, gardens, clean streets and delicious street food. On the globe you can find Marina Bay Sands, three towers topped by a giant 'ship' in the sky, the Merlion, a statue that is half lion and half fish, and the glowing Supertrees of Gardens by the Bay, plus the Singapore Botanic Gardens and the port.

Geography and nature

Singapore is made up of one main island and about 60 smaller ones. It is low and fairly flat; its highest point, Bukit Timah Hill, is only about 164 metres high. Lying just north of the equator, it is hot and rainy all year. Because land is scarce, Singapore has added new land by filling in parts of the sea, making the country noticeably bigger than it was in the 1960s. Pockets of rainforest survive at Bukit Timah, and the city is planted with so many trees that it calls itself a 'city in nature'.

People, languages and culture

Singapore has four official languages, English, Malay, Mandarin Chinese and Tamil, matching its Chinese, Malay and Indian communities, and most people speak English at school and work. Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Taoism and Hinduism are all practised, and festivals from each are celebrated. Food is a national passion: people gather at hawker centres to eat dishes like chicken rice, laksa and chilli crab, and Singapore's hawker culture is listed by UNESCO. Public housing estates are home to most Singaporeans.

History in a nutshell

Long ago, a trading port called Temasek stood here. In 1819 Stamford Raffles of the British East India Company set up a trading post, and Singapore grew into a busy port city under British rule. Japan occupied it from 1942 to 1945 during the Second World War. In 1963 Singapore joined Malaysia, but it left two years later and became an independent country on 9 August 1965. Led for many years by Lee Kuan Yew, it grew quickly into a wealthy centre of trade and finance.