Port Louis Postal Code Is 11201, 11202, 11203, 11204, 11205, 11206, 11207, 11208, 11209, 11210, 11211, 11212, 11213, 11214, 11215, 11216

Port Louis is the capital and main port of the island of Mauritius in the western Indian Ocean. It is located between a deep-water harbor and a semicircle of mountains, and was founded by the French in the 1730s as a stopping point for ships traveling between Asia and Europe. British occupation of the island during the Napoleonic Wars played a strategic role in securing control of the Indian Ocean, but the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 resulted in the port being bypassed by shipping. Port activity increased during the closure of the Suez Canal in 1967-1975, and the harbor was modernized in the late 1970s. The city is the central point for all imports and exports from Mauritius and its dependencies, and is connected by road to the rest of the island. Sugar exports, once the mainstay of the economy, have been surpassed by manufacturing, particularly textiles, and services such as tourism. The city is home to an old fortress, the Citadel, built in 1838, as well as an Anglican and Roman Catholic cathedral, museums, libraries, educational institutions, research institutes, government offices and colonial-era Government House. There is also a UNESCO World Heritage site nearby, Aapravasi Ghat, an immigration depot used from 1849 to 1923 and the site where the modern indentured labor system was begun. The University of Mauritius and the Sugar Industry Research Institute are located just south of Port Louis. The population of the city was 144,303 in 2000 and 149,226 in 2011.