Port Elizabeth (Xhosa: Ebhayi; colloquial Afrikaans: 'Die Baai') is one of the largest cities in South Africa, situated in the Eastern Cape Province, 770 km east of Cape Town. The city, often shortened to PE and nicknamed "The Friendly City" or "The Windy City", stretches for 16 km along Algoa Bay, and is one of the major seaports in South Africa. It is also referred to as Africa's Watersport Capital. Port Elizabeth was founded as a town in 1820 to house British settlers as a way of strengthening the border region between the Cape Colony and the Xhosa tribe. It now forms part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality which has a population of over 1.3 million. The city is in a friendship partnership with the Swedish city of Gothenburg and is a sister city to the American cities of Jacksonville, Florida and Palm Desert, California.
