The Merlion and Sentosa Island

The Merlion is a figure with the head of a lion and the body of a fish. Its name comes from a combination of mermaid and lion. The merlion was used by the Singapore Tourism Board as its logo up to 1997 and continues to be its trademark symbol. Supposedly, the lion head and fish body of the creature recalls the story of the legendary Sang Nila Utama, who saw a lion while hunting on an island, en route to Malacca. The island eventually became the sea port of Temasek, a precursor to Singapore. The original Merlion statue stood at the opening of the Singapore River, installed at a ceremony in1972. In 2002, the statue was relocated to its current site that fronts Marina Bay with the completion of the Esplanade Bridge in 1997. A taller replica can be found on Sentosa Island. Sentosa, meaning tranquility in Malay, is a popular island resort in Singapore which features a beautiful sheltered beach, historical fortifications in Fort Siloso, dating from World War II, two golf courses and two five-star hotels. Sentosa was once known as Pulau Belakang Mati, which in Malay means the "Island of Death from Behind". Different versions of how the island came to acquire such a name abound. One account attributed the name to murder and piracy in the island's past. A second claimed that the island is the paradise of warrior spirits and a third account claims that an outbreak of disease in the late 1840s almost wiped out the original settlers. In a 1972 contest, the island was renamed Sentosa.