Belfast is located on the east coast of Northern Ireland. The city is flanked to the northwest by a series of hills, including the Hill of Cavehill, that is believed that inspired the novel of Jonathan Swift, the trips of Gulliver. He imagined that it was shaped like a sleeping giant protecting the city. Belfast is also located west of Belfast Lough (Belfast Lake / Belfast River) and at the mouth of the Lagan River making it an ideal location for the shipbuilding industry that once made it so famous. When the Titanic was built in Belfast in 1912, Harland and Wolff had the largest shipyard in the world. Originally a town in County Antrim.