Mount Faber
4th Highest Hill in Singapore, with its highest summit at Faber Point. On the southern end of Singapore island. It is the highest point on the Southern Ridges (Kent Ridge, Telok Blangah Hill, Mt Faber Hill). Popular and easily accessible destination with good view of the city and Sentosa island. The cable car station is on a lower peak (confusingly called Faber Peak) while the real summit is known as Faber Point.
Height:
Faber Point: 105 m [Trigonometric height according to the map: Singapore 1:50,000 Series SMU 075, Edition 6 (Mapping Unit, Ministry of Defense, Singapore, 1998)]
Faber Peak (Cable Car Station): 82 m [Spot height according to the map: Singapore 1:25,000 Series SMU 025, Edition 1 (Mapping Unit, Ministry of Defense, Singapore, 1975)]
Location: 1°16'24.7"N 103°49'03.6"E
View of Mount Faber from the east. Photo taken from the the top of Pinnacle@Duxton (2012-06-24).
Route to Summit: There are many ways to get there. 1. You can drive or take a bus almost to the top, by Singapore's highest public accessible road, Mount Faber Road. 2. An easy walk up steps can be done using the Marang trail. 3. A more fun and challenging way up is to take an unmarked trail up from the abandoned Keppel Reservoir (See here for example).
Other Names: Tulloh Blangan Hills, Tillo Blangan, Telok Blangah Hill (before 1845), Mount Faber I, Faber Point
History:
Much of the writeup below is excerpted from this blogpage.
Before 1845, the long ridge that includes today's Mount Faber and Telok Blangah Hill, along the southern coast of Singapore was called "Tulloh Blangan Hills" or other variations of 'Telok Blangah Hills'. It was then renamed Mount Faber after Charles Edward Faber of the Madras Engineers, [link] who had oversaw the building of a road leading to one of the summits of the hill (Not the actual Mount Faber Summit, but one near to the present cable car station), for the purpose of constructing and servicing a signal station and flagstaff.
As far as I know, the name 'Mount Faber' first appeared on maps in the 1846 Hydrographic Chart by S. Congalton and J.T. Thomson [1] (Shown below is an excerpted portion of the 1855 updated version of the 1846 map. I can't get a high enough resolution screen capture of the 1846 map. Retrieved from National Archives of Singapore)
The height of Mt Faber was reported as 291 ft (~88.7 m) according to the 1873 edition of "Map Of Singapore Island And Its Dependencies" (See below. Retrieved from the National Archives of Singapore), although I suspect that that is the altitude measured for the summit that housed the signal station and flagstaff (right next to the current cable car station).
In "Sketch plan of Mount Faber and Pasir Panjang" (See Figure below retrieved from NAS), published in 1891 by H.E. McCallum, the surveyor general at that time. In this map, we have "Mount Faber" covering the whole ridge and a more specific "Mt. Faber" denoting the position of the summit hosting the flagstaff and signal station, while the real Mount Faber summit is marked in red ink as 'Faber Redoubt" with an altitude of 343 ft. This map is an important documentation on the early defence of Singapore.
The 1898 edition of the "Map Of the Island of Singapore And Its Dependencies" (See Figure below retrieved from NAS) 'Mt Faber 1' denotes Faber Point, with an altitude of 350 ft (~106.7 m), while 'Mt Faber 2' denotes today's Telok Blangah Hill.
Other Information: Non Currently
Photo Gallery:
Mt Faber Summit or Faber Point from the North. View from Telok Blangah Crescent. You can see the fancy platform at the summit. The structures sticking up behind, are towers of 'Reflection by the bay', south of Mt Faber. The mosque in the middle of the picture is Al-Amin Mosque. (2021-01-16)
The fancy platform at the Mount Faber summit or Faber Point. (2020-12-26).
Last update: 2021-06-04