Maracaibo

Maracaibo (märäkī`bō), city (1990 pop. 1,249,670), capital of Zulia state, NW Venezuela, at the outlet of Lake Maracaibo. It is Venezuela's second largest city, a commercial and industrial center, and the oil capital of South America. Besides oil, exports include lumber, processed textiles, and soap. Maracaibo was founded in 1571. In the 17th cent., it was sacked five times, notably by Sir Henry Morgan in 1669. Until the establishment of the oil industry after 1918, Maracaibo was extremely underdeveloped; but exploitation by foreign interests of the vast petroleum resources of the Maracaibo basin resulted in a rapid expansion and modernization of the city. The dredging of the lake also increased Maracaibo's importance as a shipping point for inland products. The c.5-mi-long (8-km) Gen. Rafael Urdaneta Bridge is south of the city. Maracaibo has a university.

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Maracaibo

City (pop., 2000 est.: 1,764,038), northwestern Venezuela. Located on the channel connecting Lake Maracaibo with the Gulf of Venezuela, it is Venezuela's second largest city. Founded in 1571 as Nueva Zamora, it became a centre for inland trade after Gibraltar, at the head of the lake, was destroyed in 1669. It changed hands several times during Venezuela's struggle for independence from Spain. Within a decade of the discovery of oil in 1917, it became the oil metropolis of Venezuela and South America.

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Maracaibo

1. a port in NW Venezuela, on the channel from Lake Maracaibo to the Gulf of Venezuela: the second largest city in the country; University of Zulia (1891); major oil centre. Pop.: 2 182 000 (2005 est.)

2. Lake. a lake in NW Venezuela, linked with the Gulf of Venezuela by a dredged channel: centre of the Venezuelan and South American oil industry. Area: about 13 000 sq. km (500 sq. miles)