Iloilo is set in a grateful repose between Iloilo and Batiano rivers forming an angle of a nose. Hence, its old name “Ilong-Ilong” which means “noselike”. Mountain ranges with peaks as high as almost 7,000 ft. provide natural boundaries between Iloilo and Antique on the west and Capiz on the north. The rest of mainland Iloilo is largely plain with interspersing upload portions.
Irong-Irong appears in the Maragtas legend of the coming of ten Bornean datus (Chieftains) to Panay who bartered gold for the plains and valleys of the island from a local Ati chieftain. One datu, Paiburong by name, was given the territory of Irong-Irong (now Iloilo). For 300 years before the coming of the Spaniards, the islanders live in comparative prosperity and peace under an organized government and such laws as the Codes of Kalantiaw.