Caracas

Chief city and capital of Venezuela, situated in the Central Highlands of the Andes Mountains 900 m/2,950 ft above sea level, 13 km/8 mi south of its port La Guaira on the Caribbean coast; population (2000 est) 1,975,800; Federal District, including Vargas state (2000 est) 2,284,900. Main industries include oil refining, textiles, chemicals, and food processing. During the oil boom of the 1950s Caracas developed rapidly, its rate of growth greater than that of any other South American capital; much of the old colonial town was largely effaced during this period. It is now a large modern industrial and commercial centre, notably for oil companies, developed since the 1950s.

Caracas was founded by the Spaniard, Diego de Losada, in 1567 as Santiago de León de Caracas, and was sacked by the English in 1595. The city was destroyed by earthquakes in 1755 and 1812. The revolutionary leader Simón Bolívar was born in Caracas in 1783, and is buried in the Panteón Nacional here. Bolívar's home was destroyed by an earthquake, but has been reconstructed as a museum. There is a 17th-century cathedral built between 1665 and 1713 after earthquake tremors destroyed the previous building in 1641 and containing pictures by Michelena and Murillo; the Central University of Venezuela was founded in 1725.