Choose wisely. Connect locally.Add your business 
Gqeberha, long known as Port Elizabeth, is the largest city of the Eastern Cape, a seaport on the western shore of Algoa Bay about 770 kilometers east of Cape Town. Nicknamed the Friendly City and the Windy City, it is the seat of Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality and took its Xhosa name, the name of the Baakens River, officially in February 2021.
British troops built Fort Frederick above the bay in 1799, and in 1820 the town was founded by the acting governor Sir Rufane Donkin when about 4,000 British settlers landed here. He named it after his late wife Elizabeth, whose stone pyramid still crowns the Donkin Reserve. The townships of the city later became centers of resistance to apartheid.
Visitors walk the Donkin Heritage Trail through the old center, visit the Red Location and South End museums, relax on the beaches of Humewood, Kings and Hobie, and head out to Cape Recife, the penguins of St Croix Island and the elephants of Addo Elephant National Park.
The Donkin Reserve in central Gqeberha holds the stone pyramid that Sir Rufane Donkin raised in memory of his wife Elizabeth, after whom he named the town, and declared a reserve open to all forever. Beside the 10 meter pyramid stands a lighthouse of 1861; together they became a symbol of the city.
Fort Frederick in Gqeberha is a stone fort that British troops built in 1799, during the first British occupation of the Cape, to deter a French landing. Named after the Duke of York, it overlooked the site where the town would later rise, and it is open daily from sunrise to sunset for free.
The Horse Memorial in Gqeberha honors the horses that served and died in the Second Boer War, most of which were landed at the port. Designed by Joseph Whitehead and unveiled in 1905, the life-sized bronze shows a kneeling soldier offering a bucket of water to a horse. It now stands on Cape Road.
Port Elizabeth City Hall in central Gqeberha was built around 1862 to designs by the architect Robert Archibald, with its clock tower added in 1883. The two-story Italianate building, with a symmetrical stucco front, was declared a national monument in 1973 and is a landmark of the old center.
The Red Location Museum in the New Brighton township of Gqeberha opened on 10 November 2006 as a tribute to the struggle against apartheid. Designed by Jo Noero, it is built of twelve corrugated iron boxes like the shacks around it and invites visitors to wander its stories with no fixed path.
The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Art Museum in Gqeberha opened in 1956 as the King George VI Art Gallery and took its present name in 2002. Its two buildings frame the entrance to St George's Park and show South African art, above all from the Eastern Cape, and British, print and Oriental works.
St George's Park, founded in 1859, is the oldest park in Gqeberha. It holds St George's Oval, where South Africa played its first Test match in 1889, the country's oldest lawn bowling club of 1882, the Mannville Open Air Theatre and the tearoom used as the setting of Master Harold...and the Boys.
The South End Museum in Gqeberha remembers South End, a mixed neighborhood of the city whose non-white tenants were forcibly relocated between 1965 and 1975 under apartheid, as the area was valued as prime real estate. It keeps alive the memory of the families who lost their homes there.
Humewood, Kings and Hobie are beaches along the Gqeberha seafront on Algoa Bay, a city known for its many Blue Flag beaches. Kings Beach, beside the harbor, and Hobie Beach are the most popular for swimming, and sand carried along the shore from Cape Recife keeps Kings Beach well supplied.
Cape Recife, 15 kilometers south of central Gqeberha, marks the southern end of Algoa Bay, and its Portuguese name recalls the reefs on which many ships were wrecked. Its historic lighthouse of 1849 stands in a nature reserve proclaimed in 1973, and the warm Agulhas Current flows past the point.
St Croix Island is the largest of three islands in Algoa Bay off Gqeberha, a rocky islet where Bartolomeu Dias planted a padrão and held Mass in 1488. With about 22,000 African penguins it is the largest breeding colony of the species, and it lies within 8 kilometers of the Port of Ngqura.
Addo Elephant National Park lies close to Gqeberha and is the third-largest national park in South Africa. It was founded as a national park in 1931 to save the last few elephants of the area, which hunting had reduced to only 16 animals, and it is a popular trip for game viewing from the city.
No reviews yet. Been to Gqeberha? Be the first to share your experience.
Share what you loved, what to skip and tips for other travelers.
Log in to write a reviewBeen to Gqeberha? Add your best shots to the gallery.
Log in to add photosPhoto: Portiatn, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Mwgielink, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: The original uploader was Andrew Higgs at English Wikipedia., Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.5
Photo: Stefan Schäfer, Lich, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: South African Tourism from South Africa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: Josep M. Gracia, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Portiatn, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Josep M. Gracia, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Bernard DUPONT, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0
Photo: South African Tourism from South Africa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: Own work of Zerbet. Uploaded by Zerbet at en.wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Martinvl, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Leo za1, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Leo za1, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Andrew_Higgs, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Solstice9, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Janek Szymanowski, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Kay-africa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Leo za1, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: NJR ZA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: NJR ZA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: NJR ZA, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Kay-africa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Picman, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Photo: Kay-africa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Leo za1, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Kay-africa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Joziboy at English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: My Cradock, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Photo: Leo za1, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Leo za1, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: The original uploader was PaddyBriggs at English Wikipedia., Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Photo: Leo za1, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Suzi-k, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: South African Tourism from South Africa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: South African Tourism from South Africa, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Photo: Suzi-k, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0
Photo: Rainer Halama, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Photo: Rainer Halama, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
