Merlion

About the Merlion

Sentosa is a resort island in Singapore, featuring a large Merlion statue that has become an iconic symbol of the nation. This mythical creature with a lion's head and fish's body represents Singapore's origins as a fishing village and its name 'Singapura' meaning 'lion city', standing as a beloved tourist attraction and cultural symbol.

Strictly speaking, the Merlion is a national emblem of Singapore rather than of Sentosa itself, though the island did host the largest version of it for more than two decades. The half-lion, half-fish figure was devised in 1964 by Fraser Brunner for the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board, drawing on the story that Sang Nila Utama saw a lion on the island and named it Singapura — an account generally treated as legend, since lions were not native there. The first statue, by Lim Nang Seng, was unveiled in 1972 near the Singapore River. Sentosa's 37-metre Merlion tower, opened in 1996, was demolished in October 2019 to make way for redevelopment, so the association there is now historical.