Antipolo City Geography

Antipolo is in the northern half of Rizal Province, close to its meridional center.[19] It is located on the
slopes of the Sierra Madre Mountain Range. Much of the city sits on a plateau averaging 200 meters. It
has the second-largest city area in the province, with an area of 156.68 km2. The northern and southern
sections of the city are in the dense forest areas of the Sierra Madre.[20]

Antipolo is landlocked; it is bounded to the north by San Mateo and Rodriguez, to the east by Tanay, to
the south by Angono, Taytay and Teresa, and to the west by Cainta and Marikina in Metro Manila.

The Bitukang Manok of Pasig—also known as the Parian Creek—had once linked the Marikina River with
the Antipolo River before the Manggahan Floodway was built in 1986.[21] The Parian Creek was actually
connected to the Sapang Bato-Buli Creek (which serves as the boundary between Pasig's barangays Dela
Paz-Manggahan-Rosario-Santa Lucia and the Municipality of Cainta), the Kasibulan Creek (situated at
Vista Verde, Barangay San Isidro, Cainta), the Palanas Creek (leaving Antipolo through Barangay
Muntindilao), the Bulaw Creek (on Barangay Mambungan, besides the Valley Golf and Country Club),
and the "Hinulugang Taktak" Falls of Barangay Dela Paz (fed by the Taktak Creek passing close to the
Antipolo town square), thus being the detached and long-abandoned Antipolo River.

From the early 17th century up to the period of Japanese imperialism, over a thousand Catholic
devotees coming from "Maynilad" (Manila), "Hacienda Pineda" (Pasay), "San Juan del Monte",
"Hacienda de Mandaloyon" (Mandaluyong), "Hacienda Mariquina" (Marikina), "Barrio Pateros", "Pueblo
de Tagig" (Taguig), and "San Pedro de Macati" (Makati), followed the trail of the Parian Creek to the
Pilgrimage Cathedral on the mountainous pueblo of Antipolo, Morong (the present-day Rizal Province).

The Antipoleños and several locals from the far-reached barrios of "Poblacion de San Mateo",
"Montalban" (Rodriguez), "Monte de Tanhai" (Tanay), "Santa Rosa-Oroquieta" (Teresa), and "Punta
Ibayo" (Baras), had also navigated this freshwater creek once to go down to the vast "Kapatagan" (Rice
plains) of lowland Pasig. Even the marian processions of the Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage passed
this route back and forth eleven times.

The creek was also used during the British occupation of Manila from 1762 to 1764 by the British Army,
under the leadership of General William Draper and Vice Admiral Sir Samuel Cornish, 1st Baronet, to
transport their troops (including the Sepoys they brought from India) upstream to take over the nearby
forest-surrounded villages of Cainta and Taytay. They even did an ambush at the "Plaza Central" in front
of the Pasig Cathedral, and turned the Roman Catholic parish into their military headquarters, with the
church's fortress-like "campanilla" (belfry) serving as a watchtower against Spanish defenders sailing
from the walled city of Intramuros via the Pasig River.

The Sepoys turned against their British lieutenants and sided with the combined forces of the Spanish
conquistadors (assigned by the Governor-General Simon de Anda y Salazar), local rice farmers,
fisherfolk, and Chinese traders. After the British invasion, the Sepoys remained and intermarried with
Filipina women, which explains the Indian features of some of today's citizens of Pasig, especially Cainta
and Taytay.