[citation needed] The value of the port continued during the British occupation of the island during the Napoleonic Wars (1800–15), and helped Britain control the Indian Ocean.

[citation needed] Raouf Oderuth, the Mauritian Artist provides a 1930s scene depicting the waterfront when motorised transportation hardly existed.

Their roles include providing security to cargo and facilities in the port area and enforcing laws related to harbour regulations, customs, quarantine, immigration, and drug trafficking.

The economy of the city is mostly dominated by its financial centre, port facilities, tourism, and the manufacturing sector which includes textiles, chemicals, plastics and pharmaceuticals.

[10] Port Louis is the financial centre of Mauritius, which has established itself as safe and trusted location for conducting business due to its strong democracy, political stability, and multilingual population.

Measuring 124 m (407 ft) from ground level to its pinnacle, the Bank of Mauritius Tower is the tallest building in the country.

Due to the daily influx of workers to business and government offices in Port Louis, day-time traffic can be quite heavy and finding parking spaces a challenge.

Other suggestions have included moving some of the 24 government ministries currently located in Port Louis to surrounding regions or introducing flexible work schedules.

[11] An effort to move workers from the city centre has already started with the construction of the Ébène office tower complex south of Port Louis.

[14] In 2012, the government decided to construct an approximately 25 km rail system between Curepipe and Port Louis, which had been under consideration for nearly three decades.

The goal was to develop a preliminary plan of the system, and then solicit expressions of interest for a design-build-operate-finance scheme, with a concession period of 33 years.

Terminal II contains 986 meters of quays with six berthing positions and includes specialized facilities for handling and storing sugar, fish, tallow, and caustic soda.

Terminal III has two 280-meter quays with a depth of 14 meters, and is specialized for handling container ships, having three super-post-Panamax and five post-Panamax gantry cranes.

Other prominent traditional elements include the Jummah Mosque, the majestic English Saint James Cathedral, the Indian Tamil Temple, the elegant five-tier colonial Port Louis Theatre (Théâtre de Port-Louis), the Champ de Mars Racecourse, and the nearby Chinese Pagoda.

Also present are some typical houses from past eras, which are mostly wooden structures with shuttered windows and large porches.

However, many historic buildings are in a poor state of repair and are being quickly replaced with homes and commercial structures constructed from more durable but less sustainable materials such as concrete, and the city now includes many glass/concrete high-rises.

The Chinese Chamber of Commerce (founded in 1908 and second only to Singapore as the world's oldest[citation needed]) hosts a popular food and cultural festival each April or May.

The Chamber also runs a funeral parlour for the Chinese Community called 'Kit Lok', to provide vigil facilities for bereaved families.

Port Louis has been an active cultural city attracting painters, poets, sculptors, and writers for centuries.

[citation needed] Port-Louis-born poet and semiologist Khal Torabully, the foremost poet of indenture and coolitude, recently designed Travellers' Lane at the Jardin de la Compagnie, inaugurated by Navin Ramgoolam, the Mauritian Prime Minister and the Parcours Culturel with aphorisms of Malcolm de Chazal, just facing the famous Port Louis Theatre.

[citation needed] More modern entertainment facilities in Port Louis include several cinemas, in which most films are presented in French and English.

Recently opened in Paille, a suburb of Port Louis, is the ultra-modern Swami Vivekananda International Convention Centre.

The Aapravasi Ghat is the remains of the immigration depot that was built by the British Government to import labourers from India, Eastern Africa, Madagascar, China, and Southeast Asia to work on the island's sugar estates.

Although not a museum in a traditional sense, the National Library of Mauritius houses a rich and comprehensive collection of material related to Mauritius history, including manuscripts, books, newspapers, periodicals, music scores, photographs, maps, drawings, and other graphic art forms and audiovisual materials, in addition to providing the traditional services of a library to residents of the city and nation.

[25] Popular activities include football, volleyball, a range of martial arts (Karate, Taekwon Do, Wushu), table tennis, badminton, and pétanque, which is a form of boules.

There is however a general dearth of public facilities in Port Louis proper, with most being built in the surrounding less-densely inhabited suburbs and districts.