Ottawa

Sister cities

• Cairo
• Montecastrilli
• Campobasso
• Palermo
• Catania
• Buenos Aires
• Beijing

History

The Ottawa Valley became habitable around 10,000 years ago following the natural draining of the Champlain Sea. The first evidence of human presence in the Ottawa Valley are spearpoints dated 8000-8500 years before present. By 6000 years before present, there were robust trading and communications networks. Approximately 3000-3500 years before present, there is definitive evidence of continuously existing settlements, including likely hearths and heavy tools. In closer proximity to the modern bounds of the City of Ottawa, there has been documentation of specific settlements at the mouth of the Gatineau River dating back to 3000-3500 years prior to post-Columbian contact. These findings suggest that these Algonquin people were engaged in foraging, hunting and fishing, but also trade and travel. Three major rivers meet within Ottawa, making it an important trade and travel area for thousands of years. In 1610, Étienne Brûlé became the first documented European to navigate the Ottawa River, passing what would become Ottawa on his way to the Great Lakes. Three years later, Samuel de Champlain wrote about the waterfalls in the area and about his encounters with the Algonquin people. The first non-Indigenous settlement in the area was created by Philemon Wright, a New Englander. Wright founded a lumber town in the area on 7 March 1800 on the north side of the river, across from the present-day city of Ottawa in Hull. He, with five other families and twenty-five labourers, also created an agricultural community called Wright's Town, which would later become Gatineau. Wright pioneered the Ottawa Valley timber trade (soon to be the area's most significant economic activity) by transporting timber by river from the Ottawa Valley to Quebec City. In the 1820s, news of the…

Geography

The present-day city of Ottawa consists of the historic main urban area, as well as other urban, suburban and rural areas within the city's post-amalgamation limits. Central Ottawa and Ottawa East comprise a large portion of the pre-amalgamation city, including the former city of Vanier—a densely populated, historically Francophone, working class enclave—and the former village of Rockcliffe Park—a wealthy residential neighbourhood adjacent to both the Prime Minister's official residence at 24 Sussex and the Governor General's residence. These areas the downtown core and older neighbourhoods to the east, west, and south. These neighbourhoods include the commercial and cultural areas of Old Ottawa South, Centretown, Lower Town, and Sandy Hill, the affluent neighbourhoods of The Glebe, Westboro, and New Edinburgh, and the historically blue-collar communities of Hintonburg, Mechanicsville, Carlington, and LeBreton Flats, with a mixture of housing types, artist lofts, and industrial uses. They also include the ethnic enclaves of Chinatown and Little Italy. Ottawa is bounded by the United Counties of Prescott and Russell to the east; by Renfrew County and Lanark County to the west; by the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville and the United Counties of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry to the south; and by the Regional County Municipality of Les Collines-de-l'Outaouais and the City of Gatineau to the north. The main suburban areas extend a considerable distance to the northeast, southwest and south of the inner-city. These areas also include the former cities of Cumberland, Gloucester (with the large suburban district of Orleans outside the greenbelt split between them), Kanata, and Nepean. The towns of Stittsville and Richmond, part of the former Goulbourn Township, are to…

Most-observed species

• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  127,788
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  114,914
• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  110,104
• American Goldfinch

  Spinus tristis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  90,521
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  88,893
• Song Sparrow

  Melospiza melodia (A.Wilson, 1810) · Aves
  83,090
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  82,604
• Ring-billed Gull

  Larus delawarensis Ord, 1815 · Aves
  80,206

Most recent

• M 2.5 — 2026-04-21
  23 km NE of Saint-André-Avellin, Canada
• M 4 — 2026-04-14
  21 km NNE of Shawville, Canada
• M 2.7 — 2026-01-20
  26 km N of L'Orignal, Canada
• M 2.9 — 2025-09-22
  22 km NW of Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel, Canada
• M 2.7 — 2024-05-15
  11 km NW of L'Orignal, Canada
• M 3.2 — 2023-12-30
  13 km WSW of Notre-Dame-du-Mont-Carmel, Canada