Inhambane (city)
| Cidade de Inhambane Inhambane |
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| Coordinates | 23 ° 52 ′ S , 35 ° 23 ′ E | ||
| Basic data | |||
| Country | Mozambique | ||
| Inhambane | |||
| District | Cidade de Inhambane | ||
| ISO 3166-2 | MZ-I | ||
| height | 9 m | ||
| Residents | 63,837 (2007) | ||
 Street in Inhambane
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Inhambane is the capital of the Mozambican province Inhambane and has 63,837 inhabitants (2007).
geography
Inhambane is located at the mouth of the Rio Matumba . As the Cidade de Inhambane, it is directly subordinate to the province. The Bay of Inhambane here ranges deep into the mainland. It forms a natural harbor. The municipality of Inhambane ( Município de Inhambane ) also includes the seaside resorts of Praia da Barra (20 km northeast) and Praia do Tofo (24 km east).
Important buildings
There are many old and historical buildings in the city. The city was largely spared from the civil war and is now a tourist destination. The Nossa Senhora de Conceição cathedral is the seat of the Inhambane diocese . The old mosque on the north bank of the bay dates from 1840. A new mosque has now been built elsewhere.
The historic train station was restored in 2010 and is used as an administration building, the approximately 35 km long track connection to the main line to Maputo was dismantled in the mid-2000s.
history
Inhambane is one of the oldest cities in Mozambique. It was here that the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama landed on the East African coast for the first time on January 10, 1498. He called the place Terra da Boa Gente , "land of friendly people". Like Pemba in the north and Quelimane in the center of the country, Inhambane was probably an important trading center for Arab sailors since the 11th century . In the 17th and 18th centuries, Inhambane developed into a trading center for ivory . The city experienced its economic peak during this time. Under Portuguese colonial rule, around 15,000 slaves per year were also shipped from Inhambane during the wedding .
Inhambane lost its importance as a trading center for southern Mozambique when Lourenço Marques (now Maputo ) became the capital of Portuguese East Africa in 1898 . In the 1950s a 400 km long road was built from Lourenço Marques to Inhambane, which made the port completely insignificant. Today it is only used by fishing.
On August 12, 1956 Inhambane was raised to the rank of city.
Climate table
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Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Inhambane
Source: wetterkontor.de
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Economy and Transport
Inhambane International Airport is served daily from Maputo and several times a week from Johannesburg . In addition, various South African airlines operate charter flights from Cape Town and Durban in the high season . To Maxixe , the largest city in the province of Inhambane, dhows run several times an hour across the 3 km wide bay.
sons and daughters of the town
- Rui Knopfli (1932–1997), writer and poet.
