6°51S 39°18E, pop (2000e) 1 800 000. Seaport and capital of Dar es Salaam region, E Tanzania; on the Indian Ocean, 45 km/28 mi S of Zanzibar; founded, 1882; occupied by German East Africa Company, 1887; capital of German East Africa, 1891; occupied by the British in World War 1; capital of Tanganyika, 191664; capital of Tanzania until 1974; chief port and industrial, commercial, and financial centre; airport; university (1970); food processing, glass, crafts, car parts, printing, oil products, chemicals, aluminium, steel, polystyrene, textiles, timber, machinery; national museum (contains the Olduvai Gorge fossils), Tanzanian State House; Saba Saba festival (Jul).
This article is about the city, for the region see Dar es Salaam (region).Dar es Salaam (Arabic: دار السلام [translation: "Abode of Peace"] Dār as-Salām), formerly Mzizima, is the largest city in Tanzania. Though Dar es Salaam lost its official status as capital city to Dodoma in the mid-1970s, it remains the centre of the permanent central government bureaucracy and continues to serve as the capital for the surrounding Dar es Salaam Region.
Geography
Dar es Salaam is located at 6°48' South, 39°17' East (−6.8000, 39.2833).
History
In 1859, Albert Roscher of Hamburg became the first European to land in Mzizima ("healthy town"). Dar es Salaam fell into decline after Majid's death in 1870, but was revived in 1887, when the German East Africa Company established a station there.
German East Africa was captured by the British during World War I and from then on was referred to as Tanganyika. Dar es Salaam was retained as the territory's administrative and commercial centre.
After World War II, Dar es Salaam experienced a period of rapid growth. Dar es Salaam continued to serve as its capital, also when in 1964 Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania. The relocation process has not yet been completed, and Dar es Salaam remains Tanzania's primary city.
One of the deadly 1998 U.S. embassy bombings occurred in Dar es Salaam;
Economy and infrastructure
Dar is Tanzania's most important city for both business and government. For example, about one half of Tanzania's manufacturing employment is located in the city despite the fact that Dar holds only ten percent of Tanzania's population. Its status as an administrative and trade centre has put Dar es Salaam in position to benefit disproportionately from Tanzania's high growth rate since the year 2000 so that by now its poverty rates are much lower than the rest of the country. The Dar es Salaam Airport connects the city with other African countries, the Middle East as well as Europe.
The growth of industry is hampered by several factors, including uneven supplies of electricity, an increasingly overburdened infrastructure, and corruption which makes operation of business difficult.
City Life
Although the city has a low violent crime rate, this is increasing along with the already high number of instances of theft, as inequality increases and the amount of money available from Tanzania's thriving aid industry increases.
Administratively, Dar es Salaam is broken into 3 districts: Ilala, Kinondoni, and Temeke.
Culture
Downtown Dar es Salaam has an Arabic and Indian flavour, including many small business proprieters from those origins.
The areas outside the city centre are newer and tend to be spread out and disorganized (sprawling). Although there is little in the way of open racial hostility, the various ethnic communities of Dar es Salaam do not tend to intermingle heavily. The edges of Dar es Salaam are spreading rapidly, taxing the transportation system and creating fear that the city will suffer urban overcrowding in the near future.
There is also a lively music scene in Dar es Salaam which is divided among several styles. Songs by artists such as Ferooz name check Dar districts such as Sinza.
A variety of museums, including the National Museum, the Village Museum and the Botanical Gardens are all very close by. There are beaches on the Kigamboni peninsula east of Dar es Salaam and on Kigamboni Island to the North where residents and tourists alike frequently visit. The National Stadium hosts Dar es Salaam's Simba football club, Tanzanian football clubs, and many other international matches.
The first cineplex in Tanzania to show first-run Western and Indian releases was opened in Dar es Salaam in December 2003.
Education
Dar es Salaam is also the educational centre of Tanzania. The city is home to the University of Dar es Salaam, the Open University of Tanzania, the Hubert Kairuki Memorial University (HKMU) as well as the International Medical and Technological University (IMTU). Other institutes of higher education include the Institute of Financial Management (IFM), Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology (DIT) and the College of Business Education (CBE).
Trivia
The building that houses The National Audit Office of Tanzania used to be a car salesroom before it was nationalized by the state shortly after independence.
Bongo is the commonly-used nickname for Dar es Salaam.
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