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Port Elizabeth is a city in South Africa, situated in the Eastern Cape Province, at 33°58'S, 25°36'E. The city is located on Algoa Bay, and is one of the major seaports in South Africa.
Port Elizabeth, often shortened to "PE", and nicknamed "The Friendly City" was founded in 1820 by Sir Rufane Donkin, the Acting Governor of the Cape Colony, and populated with 4,000 British settlers arriving by sea. The new seaport town was named after Donkin's late wife, Elizabeth. (It was not named for Elizabeth I as many people claim). The British built a concentration camp here during the Boer War to house Boer women and children.
In 2001, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality, or Nelson Mandela Metropole, was formed by joining Port Elizabeth with the neighbouring towns of Uitenhage and Despatch and the surrounding agricultural areas. This metropolitan area has a population of 1.5 million.
Port Elizabeth is just south of the expanding Addo Elephant National Park, and boasts the highly successful University of Port Elizabeth (to be merged with PE Technicon in 2005 to form Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University)
The furthest death attributed to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami occurred on 26 December 2004 at Blue Horizon Beach, outside Port Elizabeth, 8 000km (5 000 miles) away from the earthquake that caused the giant wave. The epicenter of the earthquake was below the sea, off the western coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia.[1] (http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=271&fArticleId=2357542)
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