Singapore Island, or Mainland Singapore, is the
main constituent island of the
sovereign
''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'.
The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or ...
island
country
A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. It may be a sovereign state or make up one part of a larger state. For example, the country of Japan is an independent, sovereign state, while the ...
and
city-state
A city-state is an independent sovereign city which serves as the center of political, economic, and cultural life over its contiguous territory. They have existed in many parts of the world since the dawn of history, including cities such as ...
of the
Republic of Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borderi ...
. It is located at the southern tip of
Malay Peninsula
The Malay Peninsula (Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area ...
, in-between the
Straits of Malacca
The Strait of Malacca is a narrow stretch of water, 500 mi (800 km) long and from 40 to 155 mi (65–250 km) wide, between the Malay Peninsula (Peninsular Malaysia) to the northeast and the Indonesian island of Sumatra to the southwest, connec ...
and the
South China Sea
The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...
. The
Singapore Strait lies to the south, while the
Johor Strait
The Johore Strait (also known as the Tebrau Strait, Straits of Johor, Selat Johor, Selat Tebrau, and Tebrau Reach) is an international strait in Southeast Asia, between Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia.
Geography
The strait separates the Ma ...
lies to the north.
The island forms the bulk of the country in terms of area, population and prominence, since areas situated on the country's smaller islands consists of military or industrial areas, with the exceptions being
Sentosa as well as
Ubin Island. As of June 2021, Singapore's population stood at 5.45 million and the mainland has a land area of approximately .
Etymology
Temasek was the early recorded name of a settlement on the site of today's Singapore, although the island itself wasn't specifically defined. Meanwhile, Pulau Ujong was the one of the earliest references to Singapore Island. The 3rd-century Chinese reference to ''Pú Luó Zhōng'' (), corresponds to the local reference known as Pulau Ujong, which directly translates to English as the "Island at the end".
Travellers and merchants from around Asia arriving at the
Singapore Strait to the South China Sea would have to pass by the island, hence the name Pulau Ujong. At the time, the island was also used by the
Orang Laut to mean the "End Island". Ujong Tanah or "Land at the Furthest" or its variants were also used in European sources as a name for Singapore.
Legend
According to a mythical third-century book ''Record of Foreign countries during the Eastern Wu Period'' (呉時外國傳), the island was inhabited by cannibals with five to six-inch tails.
Geography
On a straight line, the island measures approximately from east to west and from north to south – with of coastline.
The highest point of Singapore is
Bukit Timah Hill, with a height of 165 m (538 ft) and made up of
igneous rock,
granite. Hills and valleys of
sedimentary rock dominate the northwest, while the eastern region consists of
sandy and flatter land.
Since 1822, there were land reclamation works by the
British, who at that time controlled the island as a colony. Since independence, the contemporary government of Singapore has continued to increase the size of the island, having increased the area of the main island from in the 1960s to today. A further of land is also expected to be added to the main island.
Extreme points
The northernmost end of the island is
Sembawang. The westernmost and southernmost points are at
Tuas. The easternmost point of the island is
Changi Bay.
References
;Citations
;Bibliography
*
Further reading
*
{{coord, 1, 22, N, 103, 48, E, type:isle_source:GNS_scale:250000, display=title
Ujong, Pulau
Islands of the South China Sea