Merlion Statue, Singapore

Merlion Statue, Singapore (28 July 2017)


Merlion (GPS: 1.28676, 103.85438) is a statue that is a national symbol and one of the best recognised icons of Singapore. The Merlion was designed by Fraser Brunner for the Singapore Tourism Board in 1964, and was used as its logo until 1997. It is a statue of a lion head with a fish body resting on a bed of waves. The present Merlion Statue at Merlion Park is in fact the second statue.

The original Merlion statue is much smaller. Made of plaster, it was only 3 metres tall. The statue was installed at the tip of the Singapore River mouth, on the inner side of the Esplanade Bridge.

The statue was built by the late Singapore craftsman, Lim Nang Seng. Mr Lim used broken porcelain plates to make the skin, and for the eyes, he used small red teacups, in a way, incorporating a bit of chien nien technique usually employed in temple roof designs into a modern sculpture.

After the construction of the Esplanade Bridge, it was decided that the Merlion Statue be moved 120 meters, to the other side of the bridge, next to One Fullerton. The original statue was demolished, and the present one, made of concrete replaces it.

The present Merlion Statue measures 8.6 meters tall and weighs 70 tonnes. It was was unveiled by then prime minister Lee Kuan Yew on 15 September 1972.

Merlion Statue is on the Map of Marina Bay, Singapore

Merlion Statue, Singapore (28 July 2017)

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Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.

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