UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Singapore
Singapore has 1 site on the UNESCO World Heritage List (1 cultural), the first inscribed in 2015 (Singapore Botanic Gardens). The map below plots it alongside the rest of the List, and each site is written up in full further down the page.
- World Heritage Sites
- 1
- Cultural
- 1
- Natural and Mixed
- 0
- First Inscribed
- 2015
Map of World Heritage Sites in Singapore
CulturalNaturalMixedIn DangerLarge dots are in Singapore. Click a dot to read about the site.
Singapore Botanic Gardens
Singapore · 1.3151° N, 103.8162° E · 5 km from Singapore
The Singapore Botanic Gardens is a tropical garden located at the fringe of the Orchard Road shopping district in Singapore. It is one of three gardens, and the only tropical garden, to be honoured as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Botanic Gardens was founded at its present site in 1859 by the Agri-horticultural Society. It played a pivotal role in the region's rubber trade boom in the early twentieth century when its first scientific director, Henry Nicholas Ridley, headed research into the plant's cultivation. By perfecting the technique of rubber extraction, which is still in use today, and promoting its economic value to planters in the region, rubber output expanded rapidly. At its height in the 1920s, the Malayan peninsula cornered half of the global latex production.
The National Orchid Garden, which is located within the main gardens, is at the forefront of orchid studies and a pioneer in the cultivation of hybrids, complementing the nation's status as a major exporter of cut orchids. Aided by the equatorial climate, it houses the largest orchid collection of 1,200 species and 2,000 hybrids.
Adapted from Wikipedia: Singapore Botanic Gardens (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Why Singapore Botanic Gardens Is Listed
- (ii)
- An important interchange of human values.
- (iv)
- An outstanding example of a type of building or landscape.
More about Singapore Botanic Gardens
UNESCO's Description
Situated at the heart of the city of Singapore, the site demonstrates the evolution of a British tropical colonial botanic garden that has become a modern world-class scientific institution used for both conservation and education. The cultural landscape includes a rich variety of historic features, plantings and buildings that demonstrate the development of the garden since its creation in 1859. It has been an important centre for science, research and plant conservation, notably in connection with the cultivation of rubber plantations, in Southeast Asia since 1875.
From the UNESCO World Heritage Centre (CC BY-SA IGO 3.0).
History
The first "Botanical and Experimental Garden" in Singapore was established in 1822 on Government Hill by Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of modern Singapore and a keen naturalist. The Garden's main task was to evaluate cultivation crops which were of potential economic importance, including those yielding fruits, vegetables, spices and other raw materials. This first Garden closed in 1829.
It was not until 3 decades later that the present Singapore Botanic Gardens began in 1859, when the Singapore Agri-horticultural Society was granted 32 hectares of land in Tanglin by the colonial government, which had obtained it from the merchant Hoo Ah Kay, better known as Whampoa, in exchange for land at Boat Quay.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Singapore Botanic Gardens (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Key Facts
| Established | 1859 |
|---|---|
| Area | 0.5 km² |
Facts from Wikidata Q3046409 (CC0).
World Heritage in Singapore: Quick Answers
- How many UNESCO World Heritage Sites are in Singapore?
- Singapore has 1 World Heritage Site: 1 cultural.
- What was the first World Heritage Site in Singapore?
- Singapore Botanic Gardens, inscribed in 2015.
- Are any World Heritage Sites in Singapore in danger?
- None of the World Heritage Sites in Singapore is on UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger.