Today, Singapore is far and away one of the most developed cities in Asia. The Lion City routinely ranks among the most liveable cities in Asia and represents for much of its region the pinnacle of clean, organized and eco-friendly development.

Which makes it easy to forget that Singapore, too, once struggled with the same challenges now faced by its neighbors. In 1972, just seven years after Singapore broke away from Malaysia and a year after British military withdrew from the area, French academic Jean-Claude Latombe paid a visit to the country during a longer trip which also included stops in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Latombe, who serves as the Kumagai Professor Emeritus at Stranford's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, managed to hang onto his photos from the trip all these years and the images speak volumes about how far Singapore has come since the early 1970s. Have a look below at what Singapore was like 44 years ago:

[Photos via Jean-Claude Latombe]