Prehistory of Manila
Open-knowledge reference entry
The prehistory of Manila covers the Pleistocene epoch along with the Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Metal ages. It also includes the age of contact with other countries like China, and ends with the period of the Kingdom of Maynila.
Manila is the present-day capital of the Philippines and is the second largest city in the country. It is situated at 14. 5833˚ N, 120.9667 ˚ E. It belongs to the list of cities worldwide with the highest population density of 42,858 per square kilometer.
Etymology of Manila
City named after the plant
The term “Maynila” was said to be coined after the Yamstick Mangrove (Scyphiphora hydrophyllacea) or Nilad in local name. Nilad is a peculiar, stalky rice-like plant with flowers of bright white and yellow that was said to be abundant in the ancient kingdom.
Delgado (1982) records in his Historia General that shrubs of the Yamstick Mangrove, or Nilad, were abundant along the banks of the river where the city (which was a kingdom before) was established. The city Maynilad was said to be named after this plant, which means "there is Nilad".
According to Philippine folklore, when the Walled City (popularly known as Intramuros) was newly built, this peculiar plant proliferated in the delta of the Pasig River and Manila Bay.
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This entry incorporates text from “Prehistory 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.