Ground Zero (Most Affected Area)

The 250-hectare downtown destroyed during the 2017 siege

The downtown of pre-2017 Marawi — a dense grid of two- and three-storey buildings, narrow streets, old mosques, the Padian Market, and several centuries' worth of Maranao stone houses — was destroyed during the five-month siege of 2017. The area is officially called the Most Affected Area but everyone calls it Ground Zero.

Reconstruction has been slow and uneven; large parts are still rubble, plots of cleared land, or partly rebuilt structures. The area is open to visitors and is treated, with mixed feelings by residents, as a site of memorial tourism. A short walk gives some sense of the scale of what happened. The municipal government runs guided tours through the local tourism office; doing it on your own is technically permitted but inadvisable. The military and police presence is heavy.

things to do sight
A story
The Battle of Marawi ran from May to October 2017 — the longest urban battle in modern Philippine history. Roughly 1,200 people died, including civilians, soldiers, and IS-aligned militants. The downtown was carpet-bombed before the army could clear it; the 250-hectare "Most Affected Area" was left in ruins for years afterward.