Bahía Blanca is a city located by the sea, in Province of Buenos Aires, in the east of Argentina. It has an important seaport 40 feet deep almost at the bottom of the bay -actually an estuary- where a stream called Naposta drains. Its name reads "White Bay" in English, given by the typical colour which characterises the salt covering the soils surrounding the shores ('White Bay' - an arm of the Atlantic Ocean). It has a population of 274,509 inhabitants according to the last (2001 census) and is the head of the county named after it Partido de Bahía Blanca.

The city was founded as a fortress in 1828 by Colonel Ramon Estomba under the orders of the Governor of Province of Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel de Rosas, being named Fortaleza Protectora Argentina ('Argentine Protective Fortress'), intended to protect dwellers and their cattle from native rustling and also intended to protect the coast from Brazil's navy who had landed in the area the previous year. The fortress was attacked by the 'malones' (hordes of nomad aborigine mounted on horsebacks) several times, most notably in 1859 by 3,000 Calfucurá warriors. It became commercially important after the construction of a railroad by the British 1885 linking the Capital City of Buenos Aires to the town. In doing so trade of grains from Pampas were remarkably facillitated. The fast grow of economy in the area, the remarkably benign Argentinean laws towards immigration from Europe and the abundance of natural resouces of the country attracted quite a lot of immigrants, mainly from Spain and Italy and a remarkable amount from France who settled in Pigüé, about 125 km to the North of the city.

Bahía Blanca is an important trans-shipping and commercial center, handling the large export trade of grains and wool from the southern area of Province of Buenos Aires, oil from Neuquén Province, and fruit from the Valley of [[Río Negro (Argentina)]. Its group of seaports are one of the most important in the country, being the only ones that are naturally 10-metre (33 feet) deep although its depth is kept at 40 feet by regular maintenance. Along the north shore of the bay, these ports are Puerto Ingeniero White for grain, and Puerto Galván, a smaller one specialising in sunflower and soy oil, and chemicals such as urea. One of the largest urea industrial producers in the world, Profertil, is located there. Between these two main ports, several industrial and chemical plants operate their own piers. Puerto Belgrano, located 29 km to the southwest, is Argentina's largest naval base of the country. Its construction started with a secret decree signed by Argentinean President JE Uriburu. It was designed and built by the turn of the XIXth century (12.5.1898 to 8.3.1902) by Engineer Luigi Luiggi, born in Genova, Italy and carried out by a Dutch Company named Dirks, Dates & Van Hattem. This topic is treated extensively on http://www.histarmar.com.ar/Armada%20Argentina/BNPB-Indice.htm (in Spanish), enriched by pictorial illustrations.

The city is a very developed one, with remarkable cultural and educational aspects. It has a permanent Symphonic Orchestra, Classical Ballet (Ballet del Sur), a Tertiary Education Institute which will become a University in a short time (Instituto Juan XXIII and future University Don Bosco), a Tertiary Institue of Humanities (Instituto Avanza) and two National Universities: Universidad Tecnologica Nacional (National Technological University), devoted mainly to Exact Sciences for students who work, with formal activities in the evening, and an important National University named (Universidad Nacional del Sur)National University of the South, founded in January 1956, with associated internationally reputed institutes of research in biological and biochemical sciences and technological sciences (INIBIB and Instituto de Oceanografia, among others). Both national Universities are free of charge for all the students. Gratuity of Education is granted by the State although there are semi private and private Schools. The Educational System has been transformed by the Province of Buenos Aires and it is still being modified. Which used to be a system with primary (mandatory) and secondary (non mandatory) education before pursuing University studies (the French model) turned to be Basic General Education (mandatory) and Polimodal Education (the Spanish-Catalan model) although nowadays it is being reviewed and probably modified again. The city has a neoclassical cathedral being See of the Archdiocese of Bahía Blanca. The Archbishop is, as of 2005, Monsignor Guillermo José Garlatti whose Pallio was imposed by His Holiness John Paul II in a Formal Mass of Imposition at St Peter's Square on 28th June 2003 (St Peter's & St'Paul's Day). The vast majority of the inhabitants of the city are Roman Catholics alhough there are Protestant Churches and a Synagogue. There is no Mosque in Bahia Blanca although there are Muslims. Religious tolerance is remarkable being noted no signs of discrimination by religious beliefs whatsoever. The architecture of the city is remarkable as well. Public buildings such as Banco de la Nacion, Bahia Blanca Chamber of Commerce (Stock Exchange), the main Post Office, the former building of the local newspaper "La Nueva Provincia" (http://www.lanuevaprovincia.com.ar), The City Hall, Rectorate and Academic Departments of Universidad del Sur, its "Casa de la Cultura" and Teatro Municipal (Opera House of the City), amongst others, are fantastic pieces of architecture, most of them extremely well preserved. Some of them of French Neoclassical influence (L'Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris)

Two shopping centres are located at the outskirts of the City and many shops in the centre itself are quite active and offer a variety of first line goods and products. There is also a variety of megastores, some of them locally and regionally developed competing with branches of international companies which has helped prices to be competitive. Most of them are opened even on Sundays, as they tend to be in the US although this is now under revision and local unions lobby for closed commerces and shops on Sundays. The interim City Mayor seems also to favour this initiative.

There are several museums in the city which include the Port Museum, the History Museum, the Fine Arts Museum and the Contemporary Arts Museum, this last one directed by Betiana Gerardi. There are also two zoos: a municipal one, with a variety of species and permanent veterinarians and personnel looking after them and a private one, in the outskirts of the town. Areas of interest include the Barrio Inglés ('English Quarter') where the British foremen and technicians who built the railways and ports lived. Villa Harding Green is a suburb where the railway and port managers lived.

At the shores close to the city there are recreational places such as "Balneario Maldonado" and "Colón" although the moody characteristics of the estuary are not the ideal ones for nice beaches with sand given which the inhabitants of the city must reach the south east limits of the estuary, about 100 km away, named Pehuén-Có and Monte Hermoso. Both are fantastic beaches of warm waters.

Nobel laureate Cesar Milstein was a raised in Bahía Blanca until the age of nine. Then he moved to Buenos Aires where he completed his education and University degree starting his research in Biochemistry at Instituto Malbran, after which he moved to the United Kingdom becoming Professor at Cambridge where he was awarded Nobel Prize for the discovery and development of Monoclonal Antibodies for which he did not register any patent, which could have made him billionaire. He thought his discovery was intellectual property of the mankind and as such he left his intellectual legacy: of no financial but only scientific interest.

Ever since the 1950s, Bahía has been the reputed and considered capital city of Argentine basketball, with Emanuel Ginóbili (NBA, San Antonio Spurs, Texas), "Pepe" Sanchez (playing at present), Alberto Cabrera (deceased) and Atilio Fruet (retired) are well known with national and international reputation. The city's main football (soccer) team, Olimpo, played in the Argentine first division until relegation in 2006. Argentina national football team coach Alfio Basile is also a bahiense.

The illiteracy rate of the city is one of the lowest in the country as well as the neonatal mortality rate. There is one local and regional newspaper (already cited) and regularly published indexed scientific journals such as "Revista de la Asociacion Medica de Bahia Blanca" (Bahia Blanca Medical Association Medical Journal on http://www.ambb.com.ar) written in Spanish although with available abstracts in English.

It has a large Regional Provincial Hospital named "Hospital Interzonal Dr Jose Penna" and a municipal one, also large named "Centro de Salud Dr Leonidas Lucero", both of them Tertiary Centers for assistance and referalls throughout the region. The Health Care System is free of charge to any legal resident of the Nation although many foreigners are assisted, some of them very poor and arrived in the city looking for medical care, which is not denied to anyone whatsoever. Public health in responsibility of both The Province of Buenos Aires and the City which have a chain of public clinics throughout the city and the region taking care of people as Primary Health Carers. There are also private health care institutions in the City. There is one physician every 266 inhabitants. Public Health is coordinated between the Ministry of Health of Province of Buenos Aires, who has a Delegate in Bahia Blanca (Zona Sanitaria X), and the City Administration under the supervision of the local Secretary of Health appointed directly by the City Mayor.

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