Managua << mah NAH gwah, >> is the capital, largest city, and chief commercial center of Nicaragua. The municipality of Managua has a population of 1,035,870. A municipality may include rural areas as well as the urban center. The city lies on the southern shore of Lake Managua in western Nicaragua.
Managua was severely damaged in 1972 by an earthquake that killed about 5,000 people and destroyed almost the entire downtown area. Today, the city has no central business district. The former downtown section consists of empty fields, except for those now used as sports fields or as sites for monuments honoring national heroes. A few concrete buildings survived the earthquake. These include the National Palace, the Presidential Palace, and the badly damaged Metropolitan Cathedral.
Since the earthquake, residential and business areas have been built on the outskirts of Managua. Large villages of housing units were built for thousands of families left homeless by the earthquake. Other new construction included schools, hospitals, and shopping centers. These buildings were specially constructed to withstand severe earthquakes.
Managua’s economy is based mainly on trade. The city is Nicaragua’s chief trading center for coffee, cotton, and other crops. It is also an important industrial center. Its chief products include beer, coffee, matches, textiles, and shoes.
Managua was built in the 1850’s on the site of an Indian community. The city occupies an area on a fault (break in Earth’s crust) and suffered a major earthquake in 1931 as well as in 1972. Seismologists (scientists who study earthquakes) predict that Managua will continue to experience a severe earthquake every 50 years or less.
See also Nicaragua .
