King William's Town

King William's Town
Street in King William's Town
King William's Town Show map of Eastern Cape King William's Town Show map of South Africa King William's Town Show map of Africa  King William's Town shown within Eastern Cape
Coordinates: 32°53′S 27°24′E / 32.883°S 27.400°E / -32.883; 27.400Coordinates: 32°53′S 27°24′E / 32.883°S 27.400°E / -32.883; 27.400
Country	South Africa
Province	Eastern Cape
Municipality	Buffalo City
Established	1835
Area
• Total	65.52 km2 (25.30 sq mi)
Elevation	398 m (1,306 ft)
Population (2011)
• Total	34,019
• Density	520/km2 (1,300/sq mi)
Racial makeup (2011)
• Black African	65.3%
• Coloured	25.6%
• Indian/Asian	2.5%
• White	5.6%
• Other	0.9%
First languages (2011)
• Xhosa	54.5%
• Afrikaans	27.3%
• English	13.7%
• Other	4.4%
Postal code (street)	5601
PO box	5600
Area code	043

King William's Town is a town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa along the banks of the Buffalo River. The town is about 30 minutes' motorway drive WNW of the Indian Ocean port of East London. The town is part of the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality in the Eastern Cape.

King, as the town is locally called, stands 389 m above the sea at the foot of the Amatola Mountains and in the midst of a densely populated agricultural district. King William's Town is the second most populous city in the Buffalo City Municipality, with a population near 100,000 inhabitants.

The town has one of the oldest post offices in the country developed by missionaries led by Brownlee.

Founded by Sir Benjamin d'Urban in May 1835 during the Xhosa War of that year, the town is named after William IV. It was abandoned in December 1836, but was reoccupied in 1846 and was the capital of British Kaffraria from its creation in 1847 to its incorporation in 1865 with the Cape Colony. Many of the colonists in the neighboring districts are descendants of members of the British German Legion disbanded after the Crimean War and provided with homes in Cape Colony; hence such names as Berlin, Braunschweig, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Potsdam and Stutterheim given to settlements in this part of the country.