Hisingen in the context of "Västra Götaland County"

Gothenburg or Göteborg (Swedish: Göteborg [jœtɛˈbɔrj] ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gubernatorial seat of Västra Götaland County, with a population of approximately 600,000 in the city proper and about 1.1 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area.

King Gustavus Adolphus founded Gothenburg by royal charter in 1621 as a heavily fortified, primarily Dutch, trading colony. In addition to the generous privileges given to his Dutch allies during the ongoing Thirty Years' War, e.g. tax relaxation, he also attracted significant numbers of his German and Scottish allies to populate his only town on the western coast; this trading status was furthered by the founding of the Swedish East India Company. At a key strategic location at the mouth of the Göta älv, where Scandinavia's largest drainage basin enters the sea, the Port of Gothenburg is now the largest port in the Nordic countries. The presence of the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology has led Gothenburg to become home to many students. Volvo was founded in Gothenburg in 1927, with both Volvo Cars, and its original parent Volvo Group (today makers of trucks, buses and marine engines) still headquartered on the island of Hisingen in the city. Other key companies in the area are AstraZeneca, Ericsson, and SKF.

The Göta älv (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈjø̌ːta ˈɛlv]; "River of (the) Geats") is a river that drains lake Vänern into the Kattegat, at the city of Gothenburg, on the western coast of Sweden. It was formed at the end of the last glaciation, as an outflow channel from the Baltic Ice Lake to the Atlantic Ocean and nowadays it has the largest drainage basin in Scandinavia.

The Göta älv is located in Götaland, with the river itself being a site of early Geatish settlement. Its length is 93 km (58 mi). The Bohus Fortress is located by the river at Kungälv. There the river splits into two, with the northern part being the Nordre älv and the southern part keeping the name Göta älv; the two arms of the river enclose the island of Hisingen.