Where is maputo mozambique

The Dutch first established the settlement as a coastal trading post in After a few years the British took control of the post and transferred it to the Portuguese in In the town became the capital of the Portuguese East Africa Colony. In the s, even before declaring the city of Maputo the capital, the Portuguese began to develop it due to its proximity to the South African gold and diamond mines.

By Lourenco Marques became a primary exporter of South African goods. Agricultural products from Portuguese East Africa including cotton, cashews, sugar, copra, tea and sisal, were also transported to the city for export. Lourenco Marques was a racially segregated city. The total area corresponds to about Km 2.

According to PEUMM [3] — Plano de Estructura Urban do Municipio de Maputo — Regulation, the space allocated to the Ecological System in the Municipality of Maputo is constituted by a set of green areas, as far as possible continuous or interconnected and integrated with the urban space to secure the biological systems functions, regulate atmospheric flows, water runoff from rainfall and the bi-chromatic comfort.

These areas also contribute to the quality of urban space offering suitable places for recreation and leisure. The ecological system of the Municipality of Maputo covers an area of around 6,ha excluding structural urban green areas distributed in the following categories:.

In the Municipality of Maputo, the following classes of natural habitats predominate:. The rapid transformation of the territory of Maputo Municipality, verified in the last decades, presents a difficult challenge to spatial planning, and to sustainable physical planning of the city.

In developed urban areas, population density is 8, ha , characterized by single-family residential typology with lack of infrastructure. There are extensive areas in need for proper planning, that is, areas that lack of legal certainty of use, demarcation and registration in the municipal register; a situation that makes it difficult for users to access services such as water and energy distribution networks, rainwater runoff.

Lack of building control is leading people who are occupying these spaces to densify the number of families per plot. Industrial activities, storage facilities and workshops occupy approximately hectares. Ecological System zones occupy a third of the municipal land, with emphasis on areas in KanYaka and KaTembe.

This classification includes wet and flood-prone areas 3, ha , wetland areas with Areas of natural vegetation shrub-lands , mainly in KaTembe and KanYaka, form 5, ha. Parks and gardens extend over ha, of which Areas destined for public services and facilities, including community services health, educational, cultural, sports, religious services, etc. Residential areas represent approximately a third of the total land use activities in Maputo. Large tracts of land are devoted to single-family dwellings settled in unplanned urban environments driven by an extensive urban sprawl that lacks basic infrastructure and public services.

Mozambique undertook its last census in August Since independence, the country has carried out three population censuses — in , and Based on projections from the census, the INE — the National Statistics Institute -, estimates the current population is The country is still overwhelmingly rural, with According to the latest data from the INE , there are now over 1.

The population of the city has grown enormously. In it had , residents, rising to , in Men are now living to an average age of For women, the increase in life expectancy is even greater, rising from 59 a decade ago to One of the main challenges facing the city is the lack of space for new housing for young adults, who represent a major part of the population.

As a result, young married couples are opting to build houses in the outer zones of the city. Mozambique is the 97th largest export economy in the world and the 97th most complex economy according to the Economic Complexity Index ECI. A cent entrance fee opens the door to a collection of the many currencies that have circulated in Mozambique's long history. Some of the earliest were bracelets and farming implements once used for cash, along with a sprinkling of precisely 4.

In between are plastic chips that served as cash when the country was run by private Portuguese companies and a series of banknotes displayed to illustrate the changes in the country's rulers. Mozambique by Mini Cooper: Small car, big adventure. Eiffel's Iron House.

Across the plaza from the Coin Museum is a building usually just called the Fortress, which also hosts a small museum that holds the carved coffin of King Ngungunyana. A few blocks up the road is the Iron House, one of the world's first pre-fabricated buildings, designed by Gustave Eiffel of Eiffel Tower fame.

Unfortunately, he didn't take into account the tropical heat, which turned the interior into an oven, so it was hardly used for decades. Now it's air conditioned and contains a small display of artifacts from some of Mozambique's medieval cities and trading posts, which once connected Zimbabwe and other inland countries to commercial routes stretching to India and China. Farther up the road at the hilltop is the Maputo City Hall, another grand neo-classical building, and next to it the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, one of the best examples of art deco architecture from the city's last building boom.

From here it's a bit of a hike to the Maputo Railway Station. Taxis and tuk-tuks are cheap and easy to flag, but a walk through the Baixa is a pleasure, if you can take the heat. Streetside book vendors carry Thomas Piketty, Plato and Portuguese romance novels. Some of the buildings are noteworthy only for their faded glory. Many have been bulldozed to make way for high-rises, which makes the survivors even more interesting.

The train station is undergoing a major renovation, but it's still open to the public. Inside are old steam engines, battered carriages and distinctive iron latticework. The streets and markets are busy and energetic, and drivers tend to be courteous and somewhat less manic than in many other parts of Africa.

Furthermore, while it would be disingenuous to claim Maputo is entirely bereft of poverty, its more shanty-like suburbs are no slummier than their counterparts in, say, Nairobi, Lilongwe or dare it be said Johannesburg. And they are flanked by any number of attractive old colonial buildings in various states of renovation and disrepair, ranging in style from pre-World War I Classical to later Art Deco, all dwarfed in places by various incongruous high-rise relics of the s and s, when the city was something of a laboratory for devotees of the Bauhaus architectural style.

Add to these a new crop of office buildings, shopping complexes, hotels and condominiums — with more under construction — and you get the impression that this is a city with not only a memorable past but also a bright future. Close Menu Shop. Books by destination. British Isles.