Caracas

Sister cities

• Honolulu County
• Aveiro
• Adeje
• Santiago de Querétaro
• Cluj-Napoca
• Navi Mumbai
• Rosario
• Cali
• Laayoune
• Santo Domingo
• New Orleans
• San Francisco

History

Before the city was founded in 1567, the valley of Caracas was populated by indigenous peoples. Francisco Fajardo, the son of a Spanish captain and a Guaiqueri cacica, who came from Margarita, began establishing settlements in the area of La Guaira and the Caracas valley between 1555 and 1560. Fajardo attempted to establish a plantation in the valley in 1562 after these coastal towns proved unsuccessful, but it did not last long, being destroyed by natives of the region led by Terepaima and Guaicaipuro. Fajardo's 1560 settlement was known as Hato de San Francisco, and another attempt in 1561 by Juan Rodríguez de Suárez was called Villa de San Francisco, and was also destroyed by the same native people. The eventual settlers of Caracas came from Coro, the capital of the German Klein-Venedig colony located around the present-day coastal Colombia–Venezuela border. From the 1540s, the colony had been de facto controlled by Spaniards. Moving eastward from Coro, groups of Spanish settlers founded inland towns including Barquisimeto and Valencia, before reaching the Caracas valley. under the province's new governor Juan de Pimentel, leader from 1576–1583. The city managed to rebuild, using wheat profits and "a lot of sacrifice". and then the successful 1811 Venezuelan Declaration of Independence. Urban reforms only took place towards the end of the 19th century, under Antonio Guzmán Blanco: some landmarks were built, but the city remained distinctly colonial until the 1930s. the Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art; and the Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex were built, as well as the Caracas Metro and a developed downtown area. Urban development was rapid, leading to the growth of slums on the hillsides surrounding the new city. Much of the city development also fell into…

Geography

Caracas is contained entirely within a valley of the Venezuelan Central Range, and is separated from the Caribbean coast by a roughly expanse of El Ávila National Park. The valley is relatively small and quite irregular. The altitude varies between above sea level; the historic center lies at about above sea level. This, along with the rapid population growth, has profoundly influenced the urban development of the city. The most elevated point of the Capital District, wherein the city is located, is the Pico El Ávila, which rises to . The city is occasionally subject to earthquakes – notably in 1641 and 1967. Geologically, Caracas was formed in the Late Cretaceous period, with much of the rest of the Caribbean, and sits on what is mostly metamorphic rock. Deformation of the land in this period formed the region. Under the Köppen climate classification, Caracas has a tropical savanna climate (Aw), milder due to the elevation and within the Venezuelan Coastal Range (Maritime Andes). Caracas precipitation varies between (annual), in the city proper to in some parts of the Mountain range. While Caracas is within the tropics, due to its altitude, temperatures are cooler compared to other locations with a typical tropical savanna climate. The annual average temperature is approximately . The average of the coldest month, January, is . The average of the warmest month, May, is , which gives a small annual thermal amplitude of . This peculiar weather is known by the natives of Caracas as the Pacheco. Nightly temperatures year round are much (7 to 11 °C) lower than daytime highs and usually do not remain above , resulting in very pleasant evening temperatures. Hailstorms appear in Caracas, although only on rare occasions. Electrical storms are much more frequent,…

Most-observed species

• Black Vulture

  Coragyps atratus (Bechstein, 1793) · Aves
  39,805
• Blue-gray Tanager

  Thraupis episcopus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  32,645
• Tropical Kingbird

  Tyrannus melancholicus Vieillot, 1819 · Aves
  29,777
• Southern House Wren

  Troglodytes musculus J.F.Naumann, 1823 · Aves
  26,848
• Blue-and-yellow Macaw

  Ara ararauna (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  24,196
• Great Kiskadee

  Pitangus sulphuratus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  23,732
• Chestnut-fronted Macaw

  Ara severus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  21,954
• Saffron Finch

  Sicalis flaveola (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  17,358

Most recent

• M 4.8 — 2026-06-27
  35 km NNE of El Limón, Venezuela
• M 4.7 — 2026-06-26
  54 km N of El Limón, Venezuela
• M 4.4 — 2026-06-25
  5 km NE of Guatire, Venezuela
• M 4.5 — 2026-06-24
  13 km N of Caucagüito, Venezuela
• M 3.8 — 2026-05-17
  15 km N of Guatire, Venezuela
• M 4.5 — 2017-08-30
  25 km NNE of Guatire, Venezuela