Mount Faber (Telok Blangah Hill)
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Standing at 106 metres above sea level, Mount Faber’s highest point, Faber Point, offers panoramic views of the Sentosa island, Telok Blangah, as well as western parts of the Central Area.
It was originally named Telok Blangah Hill, but was renamed Mount Faber in July 1845, in honour of Captain Charles Edward Faber of the Madras Engineers, who built a narrow winding road to the summit for the installation of a signal station. The signal station and flagstaff, originally located on Blakang Mati (today’s Sentosa), were moved to Mount Faber in 1845.
The hill went through another transformation in 1857. The Straits Settlement government decided to convert the hill into a fort out of fear that the local Indian sepoys might revolt. This decision was made after Indian sepoys mutinied against their British Officers in India. Granite emplacements for guns and defence work was carried out halfway up the hill, but the fort was never completed. In the end, an observatory was built in its place in 1905.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Mount Faber used to be the ultimate scenic paktor place for Singaporeans. Today, Mount Faber continues to be a popular tourist attraction, and the Signal Station is still there – a monument of the past that serves as a gateway in the present: for visitors to board a cable car to Sentosa. At the highest point in the park, one can find a mural wall that depicts scenes of local historical events, and the tree that was planted during the first Tree Planting Day in November 1971.
Mount Faber may not be the world’s highest mountain, but it is ours. And that’s what matters most.