Innwa (Burmese: အင်းဝမြို့; MLCTS: ang: wa. mrui.; formerly Ava) is a city in the Mandalay Division of Burma, situated just to the south of Amarapura on the Ayeyarwady River. Its formal title is Ratanapura (ရတနာပူရ), which means City of Gems in Pali. The name Innwa means mouth of the lake, which comes from in (အင္း), meaning lake, and wa (ဝ), which means mouth. Known as Ava to the British and A-wa (mouth) in Burmese, it evolved to its modern name Innwa.
Ava was capital of Burma from 1364-1841 founded by King Thadominbya on an artificial island at the confluence of the Ayeyarwady and the Myitnge created by digging a canal linking the two rivers . Prior to this, Sagaing had been capital, but after Sagaing fell to the Shan, the court moved across the river to Ava. The kings of Ava set about restoring Burmese supremacy, which had disintegrated after the collapse of Pagan to the Mongol invasion under Kublai Khan that ended the First Burmese Empire founded by King Anawrahta in 1057.
