Freetown

Capital of Sierra Leone; population (2004) 786,900. It has a naval station and a natural deep-water harbour. Industries include cement, plastics, footwear, oil refining, diamond cutting, paint and footwear manufacture, and food- and tobacco-processing. Platinum, chromite, rutile, diamonds, and gold, as well as palm oil and kernels, cocoa, and coffee are traded. The beaches of Freetown peninsula are a tourist attraction. The further growth of the port has been limited by the sparse population of the country, as well as by slow economic development which was exacerbated by civil warfare in the latter part of the 20th century. Freetown was founded as a settlement for freed slaves in 1787. It was made capital of the independent Sierre Leone in 1961.

Freetown grew in importance during the 19th and early 20th centuries as a safe and deep natural harbour of strategic and commercial importance on the route to the Cape. The town occupies a confined and hilly site on the northern edge of the Freetown peninsula. Older buildings have a distinctive style deriving from the early ‘creole’ immigrants from the Americas.

It is the seat of black Africa's oldest university, founded in 1827 as Fourah Bay College, a theological seminary; incorporated into the University of Sierra Leone in 1967, it occupies a commanding site on Mount Aureol, 300 m/984 ft above the town. The University of Sierra Leone is sited at Njala, 200 km/124 mi inland.

The city is accessible through the international airport at Lungi.