Port of Manila
seaport of Manila, Philippines
The Port of Manila (Filipino: Pantalan ng Maynila) refers to the collective facilities and terminals that process maritime trade function in harbors in Metro Manila. Located in the Port Area and Tondo districts of Manila, facing Manila Bay, it is the largest and the premier international shipping gateway to the country. The Philippine Ports Authority, a government-owned corporation, manages the Port of Manila and most of the public ports in the country. It is composed of 3 major facilities, namely Manila North Harbor, Manila South Harbor, and the Manila International Container Terminal.
History
Trade in Manila Bay dates at least ninth to twelfth centuries when Manila traded with neighboring countries including China and Japan, with ties to India through the areas that are now Malaysia and Indonesia. During the Spanish Colonial Era of the Philippines Manila handled trade with China and other East Asian countries, with Mexico, with Arab countries, and directly with Spain from the 16th to mid-19th century when the port was opened to all trade. This was the galleon trade that connected the Philippines to Spain via Mexico, another Spanish territory. From the end of the galleon trade, through the American Colonial Era of the Philippines and Philippine independence, until today, the Port of Manila has been the main port of the Philippines for both domestic and international trade.
The port is part of the Maritime Silk Road that runs from the Chinese coast to the south via Singapore towards the southern tip of India, to Mombasa, then through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean with its connections to Central and Eastern Europe.
Location
The entrance to Manila Bay is 19 kilometers (12 mi) wide and expands to a width of 48 kilometers (30 mi).
“Port of Manila” enters the record as seaport of Manila, Philippines. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Port, Manila and seaport can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3398522. VIAF identifies the subject as 316735785. Authority coordinates are 14.608, 120.956. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Port of Manila” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.