Singapore (island)

Lore & Background

The early recorded name of a settlement on the site of today's Singapore was Temasek, though the island itself was not specifically defined. A 3rd-century Chinese reference (from the Wu Shi Wai Guo Zhuan) mentions 'Pu Luo Zhong', which is generally interpreted as referring to the Malay Peninsula or a location on it, not specifically to the island of Singapore or the name Pulau Ujong. The identification with Pulau Ujong is speculative and not widely accepted as established canon. Travellers and merchants arriving at the Singapore Strait to the South China Sea had to pass by the island, hence the name. Orang Laut tribes also called Singapore by this name. Ujong Tanah or its variants were used in European sources.

Reader's Guide

According to the mythical third-century book Record of Foreign Countries during the Eastern Wu Period, the island was inhabited by cannibals with five- to six-inch tails, which may have had racial connotations and provokes skepticism. Geographically, the island measures approximately 55 km from east to west and 28 km from north to south, with 201 km of coastline. Hills and valleys of sedimentary rock dominate the northwest, while the eastern region is sandy and flatter. The northernmost point is Sembawang; the westernmost and southernmost are at Tuas; the easternmost is Changi Bay.

Did You Know?

• The island's early recorded name was Temasek, though the island itself was not specifically defined.
• A 3rd-century Chinese reference mentions 'Pu Luo Zhong', which is generally interpreted as referring to the Malay Peninsula, not specifically to the island of Singapore.

Geography & Physical Character

The island stretches roughly 55 kilometres from east to west and about 28 kilometres from north to south, tracing a coastline of approximately 201 kilometres. Its terrain is far from uniform: the northwest is carved by hills and valleys of sedimentary rock, while the eastern half flattens into sandy, low-lying ground. The extreme points mark the island's full reach: Sembawang in the north, Tuas claiming both the western and southern tips, and Changi Bay in the east. Together these features give Singapore a compact yet geologically varied landscape, a small canvas on which an entire nation is painted.

A Name Woven from Many Tongues

The island has carried many names across millennia, each reflecting a different culture's encounter with it. The earliest recorded reference, a third-century Chinese text, calls the site Pú Luó Zhōng, which maps to the Malay Pulau Ujong — "Island at the End." Travellers threading the Singapore Strait toward the South China Sea would inevitably pass this point, and the Orang Laut seafaring tribes used the same designation. European sources recorded variants like Ujong Tanah, meaning "Land at the Furthest." A more dramatic name, Pedra Draku or "Rock of Dragons," entered the Kristang lexicon, likely tied to the Dragon's Tail Peninsula visible on older world maps — the remnant of the ancient Sundaland subcontinent on which Singapore now sits. This dragon imagery also echoes the Long Ya Men, or Dragon's Teeth Gate, that once marked the entrance to Keppel Harbour. The early settlement itself was known as Temasek, though that name referred to the community rather than the island as a defined landmass.

An Island That Grew

Perhaps no feature of Singapore's history is more striking than the deliberate reshaping of its shoreline. This extraordinary expansion means that a significant portion of the land on which Singaporeans live, work, and build their cities was, not so long ago, open sea. The island has not merely been inhabited; it has been continuously manufactured, its boundaries redrawn generation after generation to accommodate a population that now exceeds six million souls.

The Heart of a City-State

Singapore the island is not merely one part of the nation — it is the nation in almost every meaningful sense. Situated at the very southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, wedged between the Straits of Malacca to the west and the South China Sea to the east, the island commands one of the world's most critical maritime chokepoints. The Singapore Strait borders it to the south and the Johor Strait to the north, making it a natural gateway for shipping. While the Republic includes several smaller islands, these are largely reserved for military installations or industrial use, with the notable exceptions of Sentosa and Ubin. Consequently, the main island carries the overwhelming share of the country's area, population, and civic life.