Palopo

Palopo lies on the western shore of the Gulf of Bone, where rivers descend from the mountains of southern Sulawesi. It became a centre of Luwu after the earlier royal seat at Malangke. The kingdom connected the coast with the iron-producing highlands around Lake Matano and the forested valleys farther inland. An earthen fortress at Palopo dates from the seventeenth to eighteenth centuries, when Luwu continued to trade in damar resin and other forest products through the gulf.