From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Managua has been thecapital city ofNicaragua since1855. There had been an Indian settlement there before the Spanish, but the modern city was founded asLeal Villa de Santiago de Managua in 1811. Before 1855,León andGranada were the capital cities. The wordmanagua comes from theNahuatl languagemana-ahuac. It meansnear water. About 1.8 million people lived there in 2004. This makes it one of the biggest cities of Central America (afterGuatemala City). The city is at theshore ofLake Managua. Many people who live in Managua are White orMestizo. They all speakSpanish. There are also big communities ofCatalonians,Germans,Italians andFrench. Many of the people belonging to those communities have lived in the city for many generations. Many people see Managua as one of the safest cities in America to live in.
The city has had two destructiveearthquakes in the20th century.HurricaneMitch caused further destructions in1998. Many old buildings were damaged or destroyed in these earthquakes, and new streets and monuments were built in their place. In general, addresses are rarely used to give directions. Instead, people usually use monuments to tell where a certain place is. The problem with that approach is that sometimes, the monuments themselves were destroyed. Therefore, foreigners often have problems finding their way around the city.
