According to the Malay Annals, a fleeing Srivijayan prince named Sang Nila Utama, who claimed to be a descendant of Alexander the Great (via his Islamic interpretation as Iskandar Zulkarnain), took refuge in the island of  Bintan for several years before he set sail and landed on Temasek in 1299.
In the Srivijayan era, Temasek was a small trading outpost and primarily inhabited by Orang Laut seafarers.
Historically, these Orang Laut were very loyal to the Malay kings, patrolling adjacent seas and repelling other petty pirates, directing traders to their Malay overlords' ports and maintaining those ports' dominance in the area.
These Orang Laut eventually acclaimed him as Raja ("king"), and Sang Nila Utama renamed Temasek as "Singapura" and founded his capital around the mouth of the Singapore River.

The area was suitable for a new settlement due to the nearby presence of a spring and a hill.
The fresh water from a spring on the hill's slope served both as a bathing place for royalty and, at the base of a hill, a source of fresh water for the populace.
The hill (modern-day Fort Canning hill) itself represented Mount Meru, the seat of the gods in Hindu-Buddhist mythology, which was associated  with kingship and divinity in ancient Southeast Asian culture.
Building a palace on a hill would have helped Sang Nila Utama to assert his role as a semi-divine ruler.

The king styled himself as Sri Tri Buana, or "The Lord of Three Worlds", indicating authority over the universe.
Within few decades, the small settlement grew into a thriving cosmopolitan city serving as a port of call for richly laden trade ships plying the pirate-infested waters of the Melaka Straits region.
The Malay Annals mention that supplies of workers, horses and elephants were sent from Bintan by the king's adoptive mother, Queen Parameswari of Bintan.

It was during this period that contacts with Yuan Dynasty China were established.
 It was recorded that in 1320, Yuan China sent envoys to Long Ya Men (thought by some to stretch from modern-day Keppel Harbour south to northwestern side of Sentosa and west to what is today Labrador Park) "to obtain tame elephants", and the natives of Long Ya Men returned with tributes and a trade mission to China in 1325.

Long Ya Men was part of Temasek (the kingdom of Singapura) according to Chinese traveler Wang Dayuan who visited Temasek in the 1330s and wrote an account of his travel in Dao Yi Zhi Lue.
He describes Temasek as comprising two settlements – "Ban Zu" (after the Malay word "pancur" or fresh-water spring), a peaceful trading port city under the rule of the King.
The second settlement he describes as an area surrounding the "Long-ya-men", which was occupied by ferocious pirates who launched frequent attacks on passing merchant ships.
He also notes that Chinese traders lived there, "side by side with the natives".
He also mentions some of the trade goods bartered in Singapura: red gold, cotton prints, blue satin, lakawood and fine hornbill casques.

The Siamese attempted to subjugate the island kingdom in this period.
 According to Wang's account, possibly a few years before he visited Temasek in the 1330s, a Siamese fleet consisted of 70 junks descended upon the island kingdom and launched an attack.
The moated and heavily fortified city managed to withstand the siege of the Siamese for a month until the Siamese fleet withdrew with the arrival of Javanese ships.
According to the Malay Annals, a fleeing Srivijayan prince named Sang Nila Utama, who claimed to be a descendant of Alexander the Great (via his Islamic interpretation as Iskandar Zulkarnain), took refuge in the island of  Bintan for several years before he set sail and landed on Temasek in 1299. In the Srivijayan era, Temasek was a small trading outpost and primarily inhabited by Orang Laut seafarers. Historically, these Orang Laut were very loyal to the Malay kings, patrolling adjacent seas and repelling other petty pirates, directing traders to their Malay overlords' ports and maintaining those ports' dominance in the area. These Orang Laut eventually acclaimed him as Raja ("king"), and Sang Nila Utama renamed Temasek as "Singapura" and founded his capital around the mouth of the Singapore River.
The area was suitable for a new settlement due to the nearby presence of a spring and a hill. The fresh water from a spring on the hill's slope served both as a bathing place for royalty and, at the base of a hill, a source of fresh water for the populace. The hill (modern-day Fort Canning hill) itself represented Mount Meru, the seat of the gods in Hindu-Buddhist mythology, which was associated  with kingship and divinity in ancient Southeast Asian culture. Building a palace on a hill would have helped Sang Nila Utama to assert his role as a semi-divine ruler.
The king styled himself as Sri Tri Buana, or "The Lord of Three Worlds", indicating authority over the universe. Within few decades, the small settlement grew into a thriving cosmopolitan city serving as a port of call for richly laden trade ships plying the pirate-infested waters of the Melaka Straits region. The Malay Annals mention that supplies of workers, horses and elephants were sent from Bintan by the king's adoptive mother, Queen Parameswari of Bintan.
It was during this period that contacts with Yuan Dynasty China were established.  It was recorded that in 1320, Yuan China sent envoys to Long Ya Men (thought by some to stretch from modern-day Keppel Harbour south to northwestern side of Sentosa and west to what is today Labrador Park) "to obtain tame elephants", and the natives of Long Ya Men returned with tributes and a trade mission to China in 1325. 
Long Ya Men was part of Temasek (the kingdom of Singapura) according to Chinese traveler Wang Dayuan who visited Temasek in the 1330s and wrote an account of his travel in Dao Yi Zhi Lue. He describes Temasek as comprising two settlements – "Ban Zu" (after the Malay word "pancur" or fresh-water spring), a peaceful trading port city under the rule of the King. The second settlement he describes as an area surrounding the "Long-ya-men", which was occupied by ferocious pirates who launched frequent attacks on passing merchant ships. He also notes that Chinese traders lived there, "side by side with the natives". He also mentions some of the trade goods bartered in Singapura: red gold, cotton prints, blue satin, lakawood and fine hornbill casques.
The Siamese attempted to subjugate the island kingdom in this period.  According to Wang's account, possibly a few years before he visited Temasek in the 1330s, a Siamese fleet consisted of 70 junks descended upon the island kingdom and launched an attack. The moated and heavily fortified city managed to withstand the siege of the Siamese for a month until the Siamese fleet withdrew with the arrival of Javanese ships.
Kingdom of Singapura