The main Southern Islands are comprised of eight islands, most of which are uninhabited: St. John's Island, Lazarus Island, Pulau Tekukor, the twin Sisters' Islands, Pulau Seringat, Kusu Island, and Sentosa.
While most of the islands are now tourist attractions, some have dark histories.
St. John's Island, which is a popular destination for day trips, used to be a cholera quarantine facility, detention camp, and a drug rehabilitation center before being converted into a "holiday campsite" in 1975, per government microsite Singapore Infopedia.
Others, like the Sisters' Islands (above), have had much of their coral reefs destroyed by land reclamation and coastal development, according to the National University of Singapore.
But from afar, the islands looked pristine. It almost seemed like they weren't part of Singapore, with the lavish islands a sharp contrast to the modern city on the mainland.