Panay is an island in the Philippines located in the western part of the Visayas. Politically, it is divided into five provinces: Aklan, Antique, Capiz, and Iloilo, all in the Western Visayas Region. It is located southeast of the island of Mindoro and northwest of Negros, separated by the Guimaras Strait. Between Negros and Panay Island lie the island-province of Guimaras. To the north is the Sibuyan Sea and the islands of Romblon; to the southwest is the Sulu Sea and the Panay Gulf. The island has many rivers including Akean, Banica, Iloilo, and Panay.
Panay is the setting of the famous legend of Maragtas, which chronicled the arrival of the Malay race to the Philippine islands. The island lent its name to several United States Navy vessels named USS Panay, mostly famously the one sunk in 1937 by the Japanese in the Panay incident. Panay received its present name from Spanish officials who named the island after one of its earliest settlements, the town of Pan-ay in the province of Capiz. It was, however, once referred as Aninipay by the indigenous aetas and later Madia-as by the Malay settlers who first arrived in the island in the 12th century.