11 facts about San Salvador
- San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, is the second largest city in Central America (after Guatemala City in Guatemala).
- El Salvador has adopted the US dollar as its national currency.
- San Salvador is located at the foot of the San Salvador Volcano in El Salvador’s Valle de las Hamazas – the Valley of the Hammocks – named for its powerful seismic activity.
- The city has suffered from severe earthquakes over the years, the most disastrous of which occurred in 1854.
- The most recent earthquake, in 2001, resulted in considerable damage, especially in Las Colinas suburb where a landslide destroyed homes and killed many people.
- Though the city of San Salvador was founded back in 1525, the majority of San Salvador's historic buildings have collapsed over the years due to earthquakes.
- San Salvador experiences two major seasons: wet and dry. San Salvador's wet season is in May to October, with the dry season occurring before and after.
- Central America's largest airport, El Salvador International Airport or "Comalapa", is located right outside of San Salvador.
- During the 1980s, conflicts in El Salvador erupted into a civil war, and many people fled to the city since most of the fighting occurred outside of it (San Salvador itself was not directly affected by the war until the final offensive of 1989).
- The super-modern Metrocentro Mall in San Salvador isn't just the largest shopping mall of the Metrocentro chain (which also owns shopping malls in Tegucigalpa, Guatemala City and Managua, as well as others in El Salvador) but also the largest shopping mall in Central America.
- El Salvador is internationally notorious for its gang problems, and most of the country's gang activity is centered in San Salvador.
