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Fort Canning Gate

Fort Canning Gate stands on Fort Canning Hill in Singapore, where a massive masonry entrance overlooks a landscape shaped by centuries of history. Government Hill, as the rise was once known, was associated with Malay rulers’ palaces before becoming a colonial military site.

The surviving gate formed part of a fort built between 1859 and 1861 to guard against attacks from the sea. Its grounds also held a flagstaff, time ball, lighthouse, telegraph office, barracks, officers’ quarters, hospital, and gunpowder magazine. An underground command centre called the Battle Box later added another layer to the hill’s wartime story.

Today, the gate belongs to a heritage trail through Fort Canning Hill. The most striking detail is the fort’s former network of signals, combining a time ball, lighthouse, flagstaff, and telegraph office above Singapore.

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Singapore
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Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Singapore. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.

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myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.