Thanlyin

Thanlyin, known to European traders as Syriam, stands across the Bago River from Yangon. It became an important port of the Hanthawaddy kingdom as the port of Bago silted up in the fifteenth century. In 1599 Portuguese mercenaries in the service of Mrauk U took the town, and their leader Filipe de Brito became its governor. He declared independence in 1603, but Anaukpetlun of the restored Taungoo dynasty captured Syriam in 1613 and executed him.

Syriam remained a major Taungoo port. In the 1740s the French East India Company established a base there in connection with the restored Hanthawaddy kingdom. King Alaungpaya captured the town in 1756, after which commercial importance shifted toward Yangon on the opposite bank.