News Flash : Time ball dwarfs humans

Yes , this is the famous time ball on top of the hill's highest point. Used by the colonial government let the town know the time , it stands almost 7 floors high.

Look at how small Rachel , Jasmine and Zifen look!

Beauties on the hill...

There were several beauties on the hill that day......yes they were gorgeous. (Above)

Is there wild life on Fort Canning?

Call of the WildA Furry Friend heads for the safety of the branches. (Above)

Well , it appears there is wild life on the hill! We heard the call of many different birds and spotted a squirrel in the tree-tops. There are probably no wild boars or mouse deers here but there ARE animals roaming these woods.

Stop point 2: Ancient Kings

Information Board at the Keramet. (Above ) When we arrived that morning , there were people offering prayers at the tomb with a caretaker overseeing the grounds.

Ancient Kings.....

Yes , that's right ancient kings from the Malay world. Who is buried underneath the Keremat at Fort Canning Hill is still a mystery although officially it is the burial place of sultan Iskandar Shah or Paramerwara , the founder of Meleka. While its true that he did live in Temasek , he eventually returned to the Malayan mainland to found Meleka. Although named after him, scholars thought that the keramat could not be Iskandar Shah's tomb as he had died in Melaka.

The hill was recorded as Bukit Larangan prior to the arrival of Raffles in 1819 , which means "Forbidden Hill" in Malay. Raffles was told of how local settlers were wary of ascending the hill as they believed it was the site of palaces built by their ancestral kings. The Keramet at the foot of the hill was believed to be the resting place of the last Malay king of the island, and was venerated by Muslims.

When some of the vegetation was removed, ruins of ancient brick buildings were revealed, validating folk legends of the hill's royal past. Excauvation has uncovered relics on the hill suggesting the existence of a regional trading hub prior to their destruction by invading foreign forces in the14th century.

Write on....

Zifen is the team's official scribe - she types and writes as we discuss:-)
Thanks ZF!

The Team at Work = Teamwork!

Rachel looking cool with her shades and Bel keeping cool with her "sunscreen".(1st Picture)

The team poses for a pic.....happy to be getting the field trip ready for the kiddies.(2nd Picture)

Stop point 1:Archelogical dig site

Archelogical dig site

The site was left uncovered to show the different levels of soil

Our Stop-Point IC Bel with her mike having a go with her script (while our scribe ZF who is partially hidden writes frantically to keep up!) while the rest of us mill around the place. Yes , but we were still listening.....

We decided that the archelogical dig site (above ) was going to be our first stop-point for the children. The FCH site is the one and only one place where they have found a substantial number of artefacts dating back to the early 14th century. Some samples of the artefacts can be seen at the dig site as well as at the Fort Canning Centre as stone's throw away.

Our stop-point IC , wasted no time to get her practice going - with mike and plenty of spunk , Bel got on with her job.

A reccee we will go....a reccee we will go...

Thick foilage greeted us on the way up.(Above)
Reccee Day
At 945am , we pushed off from Park Mall and headed towards ROM - the startpoint of field trip.
Up the staircast from the ROM , we hit a fork path and decided to that this would be the place for our first briefing to the kiddies.

Welcome to Fort Canning

View from the top of Fort Canning Hill aka Government Hill circa 1823 (Below)
Hello Everyone!

Welcome to the Fort Canning Hill Field Trip website.

Hope you will learn something about the historical significance of this place after reading our team's blog!

Rach , Jas , Zf , Bel & Dan