Cagayan

Cagayan, officially the Province of Cagayan, is a province in the Philippines located in the Cagayan Valley region, covering the northeastern tip of Luzon. Its capital is the city of Tuguegarao. It is about northwest of Manila, and includes the Babuyan Islands to the north. The province borders Ilocos Norte and Apayao to the west, and Kalinga and Isabela to the south. Cagayan was one of the early provinces that existed during the Spanish colonial period. Called La Provincia de Cagayan, its borders essentially covered the entire Cagayan Valley, which included the present provinces of Isabela, Quirino, Nueva Vizcaya, Batanes and portions of Kalinga, Apayao, and Aurora. The former capital was Nueva Segovia, which also served as the seat of the Diocese of Nueva Segovia. Today, only remain of the former vastness of the province. The entire region, however, is still referred to as Cagayan Valley. Etymology A folk legend holds that the name was originally derived from the tagay, a plant that grows abundantly in the northern part of the province. The term Catagayan, "the place where the tagay grows" was shortened to Cagayan. Linguists, however, hold that cagayan comes from an ancient, lost word that means "river". Variations of this word—karayan, kayan, kahayan, kayayan, kagayan and kalayan—all mean river, referring to Cagayan River. It is said to have also share etymology with Cagayan de Oro in Mindanao with the similar reference, also called Cagayan River. History