Marawi City

Marawi City, officially known as the Islamic City of Marawi, is the capital and the largest city of the province of Lanao del Sur on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines. According to the, it has a population of.The people of Marawi are called the Maranaos and speak the Maranao language. They are named after Lake Lanao, which is called Meranau in the language, upon whose shores Marawi lies. The city is also called the "Summer Capital of the South" because of its higher elevation and cooler climate, a nickname it shares with Malaybalay, which legally holds the title.An armed conflict against the ISIL-affiliated Maute group is in progress within the city since May 2017.HistoryMarawi was founded as Dansalan in 1639 by the Spaniards led by Francisco Atienza who came from Iligan and were attempting to conquer the entire Lake Lanao area. However, it was abandoned later the same year when thousands of Maranao warriors invested the then-fortifying settlement, pressing the Spaniards hard and thus they returned to Iligan, having failed in their quest. The Spaniards only returned to the area when they began the conquest of the Sultanate of Maguindanao in the late 19th century, only to be abandoned once again when the Americans came there in 1900. It served as the capital of the undivided Lanao province from 1907 to 1940. Dansalan in Meranaw is a place where ships berth – a port of entry.