Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
city's growth. In the 1950s and 1960s 'LM' became a favoured playground for Portuguese
holiday makers and apartheid-era South Africans, who came over the border in droves
seeking prawns, prostitutes and beaches. With Mozambican independence in 1975, the
city's original residents reasserted themselves and in 1976 President Samora Machel
changed the name to Maputo, honouring an early chief who had resisted Portuguese col-
onisation.
Orientation
Maputo sits on a low escarpment overlooking Maputo Bay, with the long avenues of its
upper-lying residential sections spilling down into the baixa.
Some budget accommodation and many businesses, plus the train station, banks and the
post office, are in the baixa, on or near Avenida 25 de Setembro, while embassies and
most better hotels are in the city's upper section, especially in and around the Sommer-
schield diplomatic and residential quarter. Maputo's tallest building and a good landmark
Click here
;
cnr Avenida 25 de Setembro & Rua da Imprensa)
, in the baixa. At the north-
ernmost end of the Marginal and about 7km from the centre is Bairro Triunfo and the
Costa do Sol area, with a small beach and several places to stay and eat.
About 10km west of Maputo is the large suburb of Matola, home to many industries
and new developments.
