Explore our surrounds

Six of Nelson Mandela University’s seven campuses are situated in Gqeberha (formerly Port Elizabeth), one of the largest cities in South Africa - part of the Eastern Cape Province.

The city, often shortened to GQ and nicknamed "The Friendly City" or "The Windy City", stretches for 16 km along Algoa Bay, and is one of the major seaports in South Africa. Gqeberha is the southernmost large city on the African continent, just farther south than Cape Town which is 770kms away.

Gqeberha was founded as a town in 1820 to house British settlers as a way of strengthening the border region between the Cape Colony and the Xhosa. It now forms part of Nelson Mandela Bay which has a population of over 1.3 million.

The university’s seventh campus is situated in George in the Southern Cape. The city is a popular holiday and conference centre and the administrative and commercial hub of the Garden Route. George is situated halfway between Cape Town and Port Elizabeth on a 10-kilometre plateau between the Outeniqua Mountains to the north and the Indian Ocean to the south. The township of Pacaltsdorp lies to the south.