The more than 180-year-long history of horse racing in Singapore is set to draw to a close.

It has been announced that the small Southeast Asian nation’s only racecourse – Singapore Turf Club – will hold its final meeting next year.

The country’s government will take back the 120-hectare site, which will be used for public and private housing.

Queen Elizabeth II, who was an avid racegoer and racehorse breeder, has an event named after her at the course.

Her late Majesty presented the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Cup during a visit to Singapore in 1972. She attended the feature race a second time in 2006.

Queen Elizabeth II visited the Singapore Turf Club in 1972 and 2006

The sport was introduced to Singapore in 1842, when Scottish merchant William Henry Macleod Read and several other enthusiasts founded the Singapore Sporting Club.

They transformed a patch of semi-swampland in Farrer Park in central Singapore into a racecourse. In 1924, the site was renamed as the Singapore Turf Club.

Horse racing proved to be popular not only with Europeans, with meetings also attracting wealthy Malay and Chinese racegoers.

In 1933, as horse racing’s popularity increased on the island, the course was moved to a larger location at Bukit Timah in western Singapore.

Cars parked outside Singapore Turf Club’s Bukit Timah racecourse.

In March 2000, the Singapore Turf Club moved to its current location at Kranji, in the north of the island. The S$500m ($370.9m; £298m) racecourse has a five-storey grandstand, with capacity for 30,000 spectators.

However, the Singapore Turf Club has seen attendance decline over the past decade.

The country’s government said the land would be redeveloped for public and private housing to meet “future land use needs”.

The Ministry of National Development also said it would explore other uses for the land, including leisure and recreation facilities.

Jockeys compete in a race at the Singapore Turf Club’s Kranji Racecourse in May 2019.

The Kilauea volcano has erupted spewing massive flows of lava around the crater floor.

The US Geological Survey captured the volcanic activity on a webcam.

The last time Kilauea erupted was in January this year, with activity stretching into March.

Located in a closed area of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes.

The New Croton Dam, also known as the Cornell Dam, is an artificial dam built to hold the New Croton Reservoir which is part of the New York City water supply system, located in the town of Cortland, in the State of New York, within the United States of America.

Previously there was another Old Croton Dam, which was built between 1837 and 1842, however, as the demand for water in New York was rising, in 1885 it was ordered for the construction of a new bigger dam.

The construction of the New Croton Dam was a bit controversial at first, as it was intended to be built only 6 km (4 mi) downstream from the Old Croton Dam, which would have been submerged by the new reservoir, together with plenty of public and private buildings, six cemeteries and more than 400 farms.

Designed by Alphonse Fteley, the construction began in 1892, and interesting is that the superintendent of excavations, John B. Goldsborough, even recruited stonemasons from southern Italy to do a good job.

At first, the river was diverted from its natural path to dry the riverbed, so the construction of the masonry dam would be finished, which most of the time was in very harsh conditions.

The initial construction lasted for eight years, and later it took additional six years to complete everything what was intended to be built.

There were complications in 1901 when the Chief Engineer at the Croton Dam, William Hill, was told by one of his masonry inspectors that the work was defective.

It was noticeable that the dam had holes in it through which streams of water gushed, and the core wall would have to be torn down and rebuilt, without sparing anything, including the expenses, as the dam was essential to New York City’s water supply.

The New Croton Dam was completed finally in 1906, with a height of 91 meters (297 feet) and length of 667 meters (2,188 feet), making it very interesting due to the unusual spillway which is part natural and part artificial, forming a beautiful waterfall on the north side.

There is even a bridge that crosses over the waterfall which was replaced in 1975 and again in 2005, but nowadays, only pedestrians and emergency vehicles are allowed to pass.

Hailed to be the second largest hand-hewn masonry, nowadays, the New Croton Dam together with the public park and trail that are next to the reservoir are popular among the locals, especially for hiking and biking, and with the amazing natural surrounding makes a great escape from the urban life.