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Iligan

Highly-urbanized city in Northern Mindanao, Philippines

  • 20 min read
  • 11 chapters
Iligan City overlooking from Mount Lelong
Patrickroque01 · CC BY-SA 4.0

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It is the largest city in the province of Lanao del Norte both in population and land area wherein it is geographically situated and grouped under the province by the Philippine Statistics Authority, but administered independently from the province and it is also the second largest city in Northern Mindanao after Cagayan de Oro. It was once part of Central Mindanao (Region 12) until the province was moved under Northern Mindanao (Region 10) in 2001. Iligan is approximately 90 kilometers away from the capital of the province, Tubod, and approximately 800 kilometers from the capital of the Philippines.

Iligan has a total land area of 813.37 square kilometres (314.04 sq mi), making it one of the 10 largest cities in the Philippines in terms of land area. Among the 33 highly urbanized cities of the Philippines, Iligan is the third-least dense, with a population density of 421 inhabitants per square kilometer, just behind Lucena and Puerto Princesa.

Etymology

The name Iligan is from the Higaunon (Lumad/Native of Iligan) word "Ilig" which means "to go downstream". However, some also claim that the name of Iligan was taken and inspired by the Higaunon term "iligan" or "ilijan", which means "fortress of defense", an appropriate term due to frequent attacks incurred by pirates as well as other Mindanao tribes.

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