Panama City
Panama City is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Panama. The city is at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal. The city was founded on 15 August 1519, by Spanish conquistador Pedro Arias Dávila, as the starting point for expeditions that conquered the Inca Empire of Peru, and a stopover on one of the most important trade routes in the Americas. The original city was destroyed by Henry Morgan in 1671; it was reestablished in 1673 on a nearby peninsula. The site of the devastated city is now a World Heritage Site.
Typical weather
1981–presentCity Rhythm
measuredOpening hours, by kind of place
median across mapped venuesVital absurdities
measured · the Anti-AwardsSame time system
by rhythmWhat to do each season
2dry-season
the dry season; openmeteo mean 26.5-28.1 °C (essentially constant ~27 °C; 'temperatures remain constant throughout the year'); the driest months (Feb-Mar 0.5-0.7 mm/day); 'sunshine is subdued' by near-continual ITCZ cloud
- the dry season — the high tourist season; the Panama Canal transit window and the Casco Viejo at their most usable
- the trade-wind breezes; the lowest rainfall but still cloudy (the ITCZ)
wet-season
hot, humid and wet; openmeteo mean 26.6-27.8 °C; the wet season (May-Nov, Oct wettest 8.0 mm/day); heavy tropical downpours; the rainforest watershed at its wettest
- the wet season — heavy afternoon downpours; the Panama Canal's rainforest watershed (the water source for the locks) at peak flow
- the cloudiest, most humid period; the lowest tourist density outside the dry window
What it is known for
Important moments in a year
1519 Founding
- Pedro Arias Dávila founded Panama City — the starting point for the expeditions that conquered the Inca Empire
- the 4th-earliest-founded modern capital in the Americas
1671 Morgan Sack
- Henry Morgan sacked and burned the original city (Panamá Viejo)
- the city was rebuilt in 1673 as the Casco Viejo (now a UNESCO site)
Panama Canal Expansion
- the expanded Panama Canal (the new Neopanamax locks) opened — a major economic catalyst
On the record
source-trackedPanama City has a tropical savanna climate (Köppen Aw). It sees 1,900 mm of precipitation annually. The wet season spans from May through November, and the dry season spans from December through April.
Temperatures remain constant throughout the year, averaging around 27 °C (81 °F). Sunshine is subdued in Panama because it lies in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, where there is a nearly continual cloud formation, even during the dry season.
The city is at the Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal. It is the political and administrative center of the country, as well as a hub for banking and commerce.
The city was founded on 15 August 1519 … as the starting point for expeditions that conquered the Inca Empire of Peru.
The historic district of Casco Viejo was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2003.
Panama City's economy is service-based, heavily weighted toward banking, commerce, and tourism, and depends significantly on trade and shipping activities associated with the Panama Canal.
There are around eighty banks in the city.
Tropical forests around Panama are vital for the functioning of the Panama Canal, providing it with the water required for its operation.
The more modern areas of the city have many high-rise buildings … the city holds the 45th place in the world by high-rise buildings count.
The Biomuseo [was] completed on the [Amador] causeway in 2014. It was designed by the American architect Frank [Gehry].
The method behind this atlas — 196 pp. Not published yet.