Explain: Apache Rewrite, public in URL - php

Question

I realize there are many hits for public in URL however I would like an explanation.
Apache configuration:
<VirtualHost *:80>
ServerName localhost
ServerAdmin vagrant#localhost
DocumentRoot /sites/MVC/public
<Directory /sites/MVC>
Options +FollowSymLinks +MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Require all granted
</Directory>
#LogLevel info ssl:warn
ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined
</VirtualHost>
public/.htaccess:
Options -MultiViews -Indexes
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-l
RewriteRule ^(.*) /index.php?url=$1 [QSA,L]
Basically when I try to print_r() the url received, it prints public as the first element of the array. The URL http://127.0.0.1:8080/this/that will result in this output:
Array ( [0] => public [1] => this [2] => that )
Why is it that public is included in the url when it is not explicitly stated?
Edit
P.S. For anyone wondering; the reason 127.0.0.0.1:8080 resolves to port 80 is because it is being hosted via a VM managed by Vagrant.
index.php creates an instance of App which breaks up the URL.
App.php:
class App {
// Defaults. This will default the app to home/index with 0 parameters
protected $controller = "home";
protected $method = "index";
protected $params = [];
public function __construct() {
print_r($this->parseUrl());
}
private function parseUrl() {
if(isset($_GET['url'])) {
return $url=explode('/', filter_var(rtrim($_GET['url'], '/'), FILTER_SANITIZE_URL));
}
}
}

Answer 1

I had the .htaccess file in the wrong directory, it should have been in the public/ directory rather than the / root directory of the application itself. Very junior mistake I know..
I hope this helps anyone else making such a simple mistake.