Menggala is located on the right bank (south side) of the Tulang Bawang River, around 200 kilometers from its mouth and 97 km away from the provincial capital at Bandar Lampung.

[5]: 296  According to local folklore, Menggala had been a trading center upstream the Tulang Bawang River for merchants coming from various regions in the Maritime Silk Road such as Canton, Gujarat and Persia, with a tale recording an incident when a hostile Chinese fleet was destroyed by the local armies.

[7] Despite a lack of decisive physical evidence, the center of Tulang Bawang was estimated to be about 20 km away from modern Menggala by Dutch historian J.W.

[9] Following the annexation of Lampung by Herman Willem Daendels in 1808, Menggala remained a busy inland trading port, with a shipping company being established there.

[6][13][2] During the Second World War, the Imperial Japanese Army took over the town as part of the larger campaign in Sumatra which involved an invasion of oil-rich Palembang.

The population is administered by the following villages (desa/kelurahan): Historically, Menggala has served as a center of trade for agricultural products, allowing their shipping down the Tulang Bawang River.

[15][16] Important agricultural commodities include palm oil, natural rubber, cassava, coffee, pepper and sugarcane.

Menggala is home to sugar refineries[17] and a rubber processing plant established in 2013 with a capacity of 72,000 tons annually.