official name | Windhoek |
---|---|
native name | ǀAiǁGams, Otjomuise |
settlement type | City |
image seal | Wappen Windhuk - Namibia.jpg |
seal size | 80px |
pushpin map | Namibia |
pushpin label position | bottom |
pushpin mapsize | 300 |
pushpin map caption | Location in Namibia |
coordinates region | NA |
subdivision type | Country |
subdivision name | |
subdivision type1 | Region |
subdivision name1 | Khomas Region |
leader title | Mayor |
leader name | Elaine Trepper |
leader title1 | Deputy Mayor |
leader name1 | Gerson Hizembi Kamatuka |
established title | Established |
established date | 18 October 1890 |
unit pref | Imperial |
area total km2 | 645 |
area land km2 | |
population as of | 2001 |
population total | 233,529 |
population density km2 | 356.6 |
population blank1 title | Ethnicities |
timezone | WAT |
utc offset | +1 |
timezone dst | WAST |
utc offset dst | +2 |
latns | S |
Coordinates | 22°34′12″N17°5′1″N |
longew | E |
coordinates display | d |
elevation footnotes | |
postal code type | |
footnotes | }} |
Windhoek ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level. The 2001 census determined Windhoek's population was 233,529. A population influx from all over Namibia has caused researchers to estimate the figure now to be well over 300,000.
Due to its relative size Windhoek is, even more than many other national capital cities, the social, economic, and cultural centre of the country. Nearly every national enterprise is headquartered here. The University of Namibia is, too, as are the country's only theatre, all ministry head offices, and all major media and financial entities. The governmental budget of the city of Windhoek nearly equals those of all other Namibian local authorities combined.
Theories vary on how the place got its modern name of Windhoek. Most believe it is derived from the Afrikaans word Wind-Hoek (wind corner). Another theory suggests that Captain Jonker Afrikaner named Windhoek after the Winterhoek Mountains at Tulbagh in South Africa, where his ancestors had lived. The first mention of the name Windhoek occurred in a letter from Jonker Afrikaner to Joseph Tindall, dated 12 August 1844.
Present-day Windhoek was founded on 18 October 1890, when Von François fixed the foundation stone of the fort, which is now known as the Alte Feste (Old Fortress). After 1907, development accelerated as people migrated from the countryside to the city. There was also a larger influx of European settlers arriving from Germany and South Africa. Businesses were erected on Kaiser Street, present Independence Avenue, and along the dominant mountain ridge over the city. At this time, Windhoek's three castles, Heinitzburg, Sanderburg, and Schwerinsburg, were built.
Expanding the town area has – apart from financial restrictions – proven to be challenging due to its geographical location. In southern, eastern and western direction Windhoek is surrounded by rocky, mountainous areas which make land development costly. The southern side is not suitable for industrial development because of the presence of underground aquifers. This leaves the vast Brakwater area north of town the only feasible place for Windhoek's expansion.
The winter months of June, July and August usually experience little or no rain. Minimum temperatures range between and . Nights are usually cool, although the temperature seldom drops below 0°C, and it almost never snows. Days are usually warm to hot, varying from a maximum of in July to in January.
Although the 2010/2011 rainy season brought a record of over , mean annual rainfall is around , which is too low to support crops or gardens without heavy use of watering. The natural vegetation of the area is scrub and steppe. Droughts are a regular occurrence; dry and wet years run through a cycle that lasts around 10 years.
Windhoek's population stands at over 300,000 (67% blacks, 16% whites, 17% Coloureds, Basters and Asians) and grows by over 4% annually with the informal settlements growing at almost 10% per year.
In 1928, Kaiserstraße, now Independence Avenue, was the first paved road in Windhoek. Ten years later the next one, Gobabis road, now Sam Nujoma Drive, was also paved. Today out of ca. of Namibia's total road network, about is sealed.
Windhoek's three main access roads from Rehoboth, Gobabis, and Okahandja are paved, and are designed to be able to withstand the largest possible flood to be expected in fifty years. Sealed roads can carry traffic moving at and should last for 20 years.
Taxis are readily available, and are easily recognized around the city with characters consisting of one letter and as much as up to three numbers. For example (T681, T68, T1).
Many boxers such as Paulus Moses, Paulus Ambunda and Abmerk Shindjuu are from the city.
Shanghai, since 1. June 1996 Richmond, since 20. March 1998 Wetzlar Berlin, since 18. April 2000 Trossingen in Baden-Württemberg, since 3. October 2000 Bremen, since 18. April 2000 Douala, since 31. August 2000 Harare, since 8. November 2000 Gaborone, since 23. August 2001 Havana, since 23. October 2001 Eenhana, since 17. April 2002 Ongwediva, since 17. April 2002 Ondangwa, since17. April 2002 Outapi, since 17. April 2002 Oshakati, since 18. April 2002 Lephalale, since 22. May 2002 Vantaa, since 13. August 2002 Walvis Bay, since 8. October 2002 Mariental, since 11. March 2003 Gibeon, since 11. March 2003 Maltahöhe, since 12. April 2002 Aranos, since 13. March 2003 Stampriet, since 13. March 2003 Rehoboth, since 14. March 2003 Lüderitz, since 14. March 2003
Category:Khomas Region Category:Regional capitals in Namibia Category:German South-West Africa Category:Populated places established in 1890 Category:Cities in Namibia
af:Windhoek am:ዊንድሁክ ar:ويندهوك be:Горад Віндхук be-x-old:Ўіндгук bo:ཝིན་ཌི་ཧོཡིཀ། bs:Windhoek br:Windhoek bg:Виндхук ca:Windhoek cs:Windhoek cy:Windhoek da:Windhoek de:Windhoek et:Windhoek el:Βίντχουκ es:Windhoek eo:Vindhuko eu:Windhoek fa:ویندهوک hif:Windhoek fr:Windhoek fy:Wynhoeke gd:Windhoek gl:Windhoek ko:빈트후크 hy:Վինդհուկ hr:Windhoek io:Windhoek id:Windhoek ie:Windhoek os:Виндхук is:Windhoek it:Windhoek he:וינדהוק jv:Windhoek ka:ვინდჰუკი sw:Windhoek kg:Windhoek ht:Windoèk mrj:Виндхук la:Windhoek lv:Vindhuka lb:Windhoek lt:Vindhukas li:Windhoek lmo:Windhoek hu:Windhoek mk:Виндхук mg:Windhoek mr:विंडहोक nl:Windhoek ja:ウィントフック no:Windhoek nn:Windhoek nov:Windhuk oc:Windhoek pnb:ونڈہوک pap:Windhoek pms:Windhoek nds:Windhuk pl:Windhuk pt:Windhoek ro:Windhoek ru:Виндхук sco:Windhoek simple:Windhoek sk:Windhoek sl:Windhoek ckb:ویندھۆک sr:Виндхук fi:Windhoek sv:Windhoek tl:Windhoek th:วินด์ฮุก tg:Виндхук tr:Windhoek udm:Виндхук uk:Віндгук vec:Windhoek vi:Windhoek vo:Windhoek war:Windhoek yo:Windhoek zh:温得和克This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
The World News (WN) Network, has created this privacy statement in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to user privacy. The following discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices for wn.com, as well as e-mail newsletters.
We do not collect personally identifiable information about you, except when you provide it to us. For example, if you submit an inquiry to us or sign up for our newsletter, you may be asked to provide certain information such as your contact details (name, e-mail address, mailing address, etc.).
When you submit your personally identifiable information through wn.com, you are giving your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal information as set forth in this Privacy Policy. If you would prefer that we not collect any personally identifiable information from you, please do not provide us with any such information. We will not sell or rent your personally identifiable information to third parties without your consent, except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy.
Except as otherwise disclosed in this Privacy Policy, we will use the information you provide us only for the purpose of responding to your inquiry or in connection with the service for which you provided such information. We may forward your contact information and inquiry to our affiliates and other divisions of our company that we feel can best address your inquiry or provide you with the requested service. We may also use the information you provide in aggregate form for internal business purposes, such as generating statistics and developing marketing plans. We may share or transfer such non-personally identifiable information with or to our affiliates, licensees, agents and partners.
We may retain other companies and individuals to perform functions on our behalf. Such third parties may be provided with access to personally identifiable information needed to perform their functions, but may not use such information for any other purpose.
In addition, we may disclose any information, including personally identifiable information, we deem necessary, in our sole discretion, to comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal proceeding or governmental request.
We do not want you to receive unwanted e-mail from us. We try to make it easy to opt-out of any service you have asked to receive. If you sign-up to our e-mail newsletters we do not sell, exchange or give your e-mail address to a third party.
E-mail addresses are collected via the wn.com web site. Users have to physically opt-in to receive the wn.com newsletter and a verification e-mail is sent. wn.com is clearly and conspicuously named at the point of
collection.If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by e-mailing us at michaelw(at)wn.com
The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during registration and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100 percent secure, however. Therefore, though we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
If we decide to change our e-mail practices, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the homepage, and other places we think appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
If we make material changes to our e-mail practices, we will notify you here, by e-mail, and by means of a notice on our home page.
The advertising banners and other forms of advertising appearing on this Web site are sometimes delivered to you, on our behalf, by a third party. In the course of serving advertisements to this site, the third party may place or recognize a unique cookie on your browser. For more information on cookies, you can visit www.cookiecentral.com.
As we continue to develop our business, we might sell certain aspects of our entities or assets. In such transactions, user information, including personally identifiable information, generally is one of the transferred business assets, and by submitting your personal information on Wn.com you agree that your data may be transferred to such parties in these circumstances.