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.
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