Mrauk U is culturally significant for the local Rakhine (Arakanese) people and is the location of many important archeological sites.

The town is located on a small outcrop of the Rakhine Yoma on the eastern side of the Kaladan's alluvial plain.

Mrauk U, like all of Rakhine State, is situated in a coastal tropical monsoon rainforest climate (Köppen Am) region.

The town receives over 3,600 millimetres or 140 inches of rain a year from the Southwestern Monsoon, making it one of the wettest regions in Myanmar.

This is based on the story of the Arakanese being able to crush an invasion by the Pyu in the mid 10th Century by a Mro prince, Pai Phru.

In the city of golden Mrauk-U there are scattering innumerable temples and pagodas which preserved as places, thereby exerting a great influence on spiritual life of the people.

[9][10] In response to protesters attempting to seize the government building, police fired live ammunition into the crowd, killing seven and wounding twelve.

It became a transit point for goods such as rice, ivory, elephants, tree sap and deer hide from Ava in Myanmar, and of cotton, slaves, horses, cowrie, spices and textiles from Bengal, India, Persia and Arabia.

[citation needed] The city also traded with non-Asian powers such as Portugal and then the Dutch East India Company of the Netherlands.

[16] According to popular Arakanese legend, there were 12 'cities of the Ganges' which constitute roughly half of modern-day Bangladesh which were governed by Mrauk U, including Dhaka and Chittagong[citation needed].

As Mrauk U and her kingdom prospered, the kings, ministers and peasants built many pagodas and temples around the town to reflect their devotion.

Thus, Mrauk U houses a rich collection of temples and pagodas second only to the Central Burmese town of Bagan, in Myanmar.

The proposal is backed by Kofi Annan and archaeologists are now cataloguing and protecting the city's many sites in preparation for nomination.

Friar Manrique also mentions the presence of a Roman Catholic church and a small number of converts and foreign born Catholics (including ronin who were forced out of Japan due to persecution by the shogunate of Tokugawa Ieyasu) The area around Mrauk U ranks second in the production of rice in Myanmar, after the Irrawaddy Delta.