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25-589: Keppel Harbour, by association with the rocky outcrop known as Batu Berlayar (and "Lot's Wife" in colonial times) has been speculated to be the site of Long Ya Men , one of two 14th-century settlements described by Chinese sojourner Wang Dayuan during his travels in Southeast Asia; it has not been systematically excavated to confirm this, however. In the modern period, the harbour was first noticed in August 1819 by William Farquhar , who reported his discovery of

50-541: A "new harbour" inhabited by orang laut ("sea people") living in boats to Sir Stamford Raffles the following month. In the 1830s, the Straits Settlements , consisting of Singapore , Malacca and Penang , was a pirates' haven . By 1832, Singapore had become the busy centre of government for the three areas. It was also at this time that Captain Henry Keppel came to Singapore and helped to clear

75-407: A chief there found a jewelled head-dress while digging in the ground, and that "the beginning of the year is calculated from the [first] rising of the moon, when the chief put on this head-gear and wore his [ceremonial] dress". He also said the natives would "gather their hair into a chignon , and wear short cotton bajus girded about with black cotton sarongs ". The description of the people may be

100-477: A strait runs, and it was so called because the two hills looked like "Dragon's teeth". Wang described the people of Long Ya Men as being prone to acts of piracy, and that while the natives traded with Chinese from Quanzhou , Chinese junks on their way back from the Western Oceans (西洋) may be met by pirates there who attacked with two to three hundred perahus (boats). He mentioned that in olden times

125-637: Is Malay for straits ). Singapore's largest conglomerate , the Keppel Corporation , has announced plans to build exclusive villas on the 5.3 hectare Keppel Island that it owns in Keppel Bay at Keppel Harbour — home to a shipyard until 2000. ≥ The group has launched a condominium designed by renowned architect Daniel Libeskind , who is designing the masterplan for New York 's ground zero site. The 1,200-unit waterfront condominium — known as Keppel Bay phase two —

150-761: Is the longest cable-stayed bridge in Singapore along Keppel Bay Vista, spanning 250 metres across the strait linking the private Keppel Island to mainland. The bridge was officially opened on 3 January 2008 by the sixth President of Singapore S. R. Nathan . Built at a cost of $ 30 million, the cable-stayed bridge allows currents to flow freely through the marina basin, bringing in nutrients, plankton and marine larvae, while helping to remove sediment that would otherwise settle on marine organisms and smother them. 1°15′50.58″N 103°48′50.94″E  /  1.2640500°N 103.8141500°E  / 1.2640500; 103.8141500 This Singapore location article

175-506: Is the name Chinese explorer Wang Dayuan recorded for Batu Belayar , a craggy granite outcrop that formerly stood at the gateway to Keppel Harbour in Singapore . In his description, “The strait runs between the two hills of the Danmaxi ( Temasek ) natives which looked like dragon’s teeth.” From there, the name Long Ya Men or Dragon Teeth’s Gate was born. The rocky outcrop served as a navigational aid to ancient mariners sailing through

200-717: The British East India Company did not know of the "Lot's Wife", or the deep water harbour it led to when he landed in Singapore in January 1819. William Farquhar , the first British Resident and Commandant of Singapore, wrote to Raffles on 2 September 1819 that he had founded a new harbour west of the settlement. The two rock outcrops were subsequently blown up by the Straits Settlements Surveyor, John Thomson, in August 1848 to widen

225-686: The South Pacific , Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and Africa. The admiral travelled on the order of the Chinese Emperor to establish trade relations with countries west of China. He is believed to have sailed through the waters off Labrador Park, though whether he landed in Singapore is uncertain. In the 17th century, the passageway was abandoned in favour of the wider and more open Main Straits, that lies south of Pulau Satamu, where Raffles Lighthouse stands today. Sir Stamford Raffles of

250-589: The Singapore Main Strait south of Pulau Satumu . The Long Ya Men's unique features was said to have assisted Zheng He in navigating the waters around Singapore during his seven maritime voyages to the west between 1405 and 1433 AD . Historically the rocky outcrop was known locally by the Malays in earlier times as " Batu Berlayar " ("Sailing Rock") near the present site of Labrador Park , off Pasir Panjang Road . Another rock outcrop used to stand on

275-657: The Straits Settlements . The Albert Dock was opened in 1879. For a while, the harbour was simply known as New Harbour but it was renamed Keppel Harbour in honour of Admiral Keppel , who was instrumental in clearing the straits of pirates, by the Acting Governor, Sir James Alexander Swettenham , on 19 April 1900. New Harbour Road was also renamed Keppel Road. The Chinese names for Keppel Road and Keppel Harbour were sin kam kong chu u or "Kampong Bahru dock", and sek lat moi or " selat passage" ( selat

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300-572: The Straits of pirates . Whilst based at Singapore, he discovered the deep water anchorage that came to be called by his name. Keppel first sailed to Singapore as a midshipman in 1832 and took part in the Naning ( Malacca ) expedition, and came again later in 1842 to help with the suppression of piracy in the Malay Archipelago . Keppel had a long association with Singapore, having visited the island on several occasions up to 1903. He surveyed

325-523: The city. It is argued that the two rocky outcrops are the two hills of Temasek named in Yuan sources as Long Ya Men (Dragon's Teeth Gate) since they resembled two dragon's teeth between which a passage of water runs. Another name Ling Ya Men ( Chinese : 凌牙門 ; pinyin : Líng Yá Mén ) is recorded in the Song dynasty work Zhu Fan Zhi , however it is usually considered to be a different place. It

350-742: The entrance to the new harbour. In July 2005, a 6m high stone replica of Long Ya Men was put up near its original site by a joint collaboration involving the Singapore Tourism Board , the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore and the National Parks Board . This was part of a three-month-long celebration of the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's maiden voyage, which began in Nanjing , China. A storyboard telling Long Ya Men's significance to Singapore and Zheng He's story,

375-486: The existing 969-unit Caribbean at Keppel Bay . The most exclusive homes of the lot are reserved for Keppel Island, where the Marina@Keppel Bay , a separate development, was completed in late 2007. The marina will have high-end restaurants and tentative plans are for high-end villas and possible condominium units on the island. A 250-metre Keppel Bay Bridge , a cable-stayed bridge links Keppel Island to

400-645: The first known record of the Orang Laut who inhabited the region. A different settlement called Ban Zu (班卒), described as being located on a hill behind Long Ya Men , is thought to be a transcription of the Malay Pancur and may be today's Fort Canning Hill. The Keppel passageway was used by Asian and early European sailors and traders for hundreds of years to sail past Singapore. Between 1405 and 1433, Zheng He made seven voyages to more than 30 countries, travelling in fleets of up to 300 ships to

425-732: The mainland. Keppel also has two other smaller plots for condominium on the other side of the Caribbean . Corals condominium is located beside Caribbean , adjacent to the former site of King's Dock (the second largest dock in the world at the time after its opening on 26 August 1913) with 366 units. One is 3.4 ha in size while the other, a joint venture with Mapletree, is 2.9 ha. 1°16′N 103°50′E  /  1.267°N 103.833°E  / 1.267; 103.833 Long Ya Men Long Ya Men ( simplified Chinese : 龙牙门 ; traditional Chinese : 龍牙門 ; pinyin : lóngyámén ; Malay : Batu Berlayar ) or Dragon's Teeth Gate ,

450-557: The new harbour of Singapore, which was formed based on his plans. The harbour was completed in 1886. In 1855, Captain William Cloughton, William Paterson and William Wemyss Ker purchased Pantai Chermin from Temenggong Daeng Ibrahim , the Temenggong of Johor . In 1859, Cloughton built the first dry dock known as Number 1 Dock. In 1868, the second dock, Victoria Dock, was inaugurated by Sir Harry George Ord , Governor of

475-427: The opposite shore of Tanjong Rimau on Sentosa Island. These two rock outcrops once formed a gateway at the western entrance to Keppel Harbour . British sailors named the more prominent Batu Berlayar, " Lot's Wife " in reference to the biblical story of the wife of Abraham's nephew. She was transformed into a pillar of salt when she disobeyed divine orders not to look back at the destruction of Sodom while fleeing from

500-541: The swift waters of the narrow channel, but was subsequently destroyed by the British in 1848 to widen the channel for larger vessels to sail through. In 2005, a symbolic replica was erected by the Singapore government near its original site to mark the role it played in Singapore's maritime history. Long Ya Men was documented in Wang Dayuan's travelogue Daoyi Zhilüe as one of the two settlements of Temasek . It

525-455: The symbolic replica can serve to preserve the memory of Long Ya Men, which is an important part of Singapore's maritime history, for future generations and visitors familiar with the historical voyages of Zheng He. 01°15′45.06″N 103°48′18.68″E  /  1.2625167°N 103.8051889°E  / 1.2625167; 103.8051889 Keppel Bay Bridge The Keppel Bay Bridge ( Chinese : 吉宝湾桥, Malay : Jambatan Teluk Keppel )

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550-506: Was also put up next to the replica. The authorities had initially planned for the replica to replace the red Berlayer Beacon, but the Singapore Heritage Society was against the decision, saying the beacon was itself a heritage site and should not be destroyed because the beacon has been at Labrador Park since the end of World War II . The replica was finally built just meters away from the beacon. The authorities hope

575-448: Was launched in early 2007. It sits on about 84,000 square metres of land on the mainland opposite Keppel Island, with a shoreline of 750 metres. It has six high-rise blocks and spacious low-rise apartments . The condominium is part of the 4,860,000 square feet (452,000 m) Keppel Bay mega development, which is 70 per cent owned by Keppel Corp and 30 per cent by its unit Keppel Land . About 2,800 homes are set to be built, including

600-508: Was marked in the Mao Kun navigational map historical maritime annal Wubei Zhi said to date from the voyages of Ming dynasty 's Admiral Zheng He . Long Ya Men in the map was also used to refer to the strait between Sentosa island and Labrador Point, and named after a pinnacle of stone that was called Batu Berlayar, which means "Sail Rock" in Malay . Another suggestion is that it refers to

625-463: Was recorded that during the Yuan dynasty , envoys were sent to Long Ya Men in 1320 to obtain tame elephants. The people of Long Ya Men then returned in 1325 with a tribute and trade mission to China. In around 1330, the traveller Wang Dayuan was said to have sailed through this passageway. In his travelogue Daoyi Zhilüe , he recorded that Long Ya Men was the two hills of Temasek between which

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