Port Elizabeth - usually abbreviated by South Africans to P.E. - is South Africa's fifth largest city and its third largest port. Along with Uitenhage and Kirkwood it forms the industrial and commercial center of the Eastern Cape. In this "Detroit of South Africa" the most important branch of industry is automobile
manufacture, second place being taken by weaving mills. In cultural matters Port Elizabeth can stand comparison with other large South African cities: it has a University, with 5,000 students, and a range of other educational institutions including a college of technology.
But Port Elizabeth is also a popular holiday resort, with an attractive townscape, endlessly long beaches, particularly to the south of the city, and an interesting hinterland.
Originally this was an area of grassland used by a Hottentot tribe as grazing for their livestock. The first Europeans to discover Algoa Bay, in which the city lies, were Portuguese navigators, beginning with Bartolomeu Diaz, who landed at the east end of the bay in 1488. Port Elizabeth, however, was not founded until 1820, when British settlers arrived in Algoa Bay. Sir Rufane Donkin, acting Governor of the Cape, came here to welcome the pioneers and named the new settlement after his wife Elizabeth, who had died young. The place developed only very slowly, receiving its charter as a town in 1861.
Although a number of freeways run through the city center, Port Elizabeth has preserved an attractive aspect, with handsome Victorian buildings as well as modern high-rise blocks. The central area extends over a level coastal strip of land and the steep hill at its west end on which is the Donkin Reserve.
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