Port Elizabeth

Port Elizabeth city (1991 pop. 670,653), Eastern Cape, SE South Africa, on Algoa Bay , an arm of the Indian Ocean. It is a tourist center and a major seaport that ships diamonds, wool, fruit, and other items. Automobile assembly is the chief industry; shoe manufacturing, metal and timber processing, and electrical engineering are also important. There is some food processing, tanning, and chemical production. Port Elizabeth was founded the British in 1820 near Fort Frederick (1799; now a monument). The city grew rapidly after 1873, when a railroad to Kimberley began. The Univ. of Port Elizabeth (1964) and a technical college (1925) are in the city. A national park is nearby.

Port Elizabeth (Xhosa: Bhayi), Eastern Cape/South Africa Fort Frederick The original fort was built in 1799 and named after Frederick Augustus (1763–1827), Duke of York and second son of King George III^†. In 1820 it was renamed by Sir Rufane Donkin, acting governor of Cape Colony, after his wife, aged 28, who had succumbed to a fever in India two years earlier. The metropolitan area is named, locally, after Nelson Mandela (1918– ), President of South Africa (1994–9).