Tanzam Highway

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The Tanzam Highway leads from Lusaka in Zambia to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania . The trunk road was built in several stages between 1968 and 1973. The aim was to create logistical access for Zambia to a seaport and to expand the transport options for Zambia, Malawi and what was then Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo ).

description

This road is about 2400 km long and paved. In Zambia it is called Great North Road , in Tanzania it is marked T1 . It begins in the largest city in Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, and runs through the regions of Pwani , Morogoro , Iringa and Mbeya . The highway also crosses the Mikumi National Park .

Near Iringa, the highway passes the site of the battle at Rugaro , where a memorial commemorates the defeat of the German colonial troops at the Hehe on August 17, 1891.

In Zambia, the Great North Road crosses the Kapiri Mposhi and Nakonde areas and is marked T2 . The distance between Nakonde and Kapiri Mposhi is approximately 832 km.

During the apartheid period in South Africa and the civil wars in Angola and Mozambique , it was together with the TAZARA railroad for Zambia the only safe access to a sea port ( port of Dar es Salaam ), and therefore a basic condition for the survival of the Zambian economy. The Tanzam Highway leads largely through very mountainous areas from an altitude of up to over 2000  m .

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