Mozambique Island
Mozambique
Frequently Asked Questions
It doesn't: ships anchor offshore and passengers come ashore by tender. You land directly inside the UNESCO-listed historic town.
Yes, all of it. The island is three kilometres long and no vehicle is needed from end to end. Walking is really the only sensible way to see it.
Fort São Sebastião at the northern tip, the chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte just behind it, then the São Paulo palace and the lanes of the stone town. Heading south, the macuti town offers a striking contrast.
It is the oldest complete fort in sub-Saharan Africa, built by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. Its massive ramparts enclose barracks, monumental cisterns and esplanades swept by the Indian Ocean wind.
The chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte, built in 1522 at the northern tip. It is often cited as the oldest European building in the southern hemisphere.
Because it was the capital of Portuguese East Africa until 1898 and the key to trade between Africa, Arabia and India. Vasco da Gama stopped here as early as 1498, on the route to the Indies.
The northern half, the stone town, lines up coral-and-lime houses with carved doors and colonnaded verandas; the southern half, the macuti town, named for its woven palm roofs, holds most of the population in a maze of low houses. Visit the second discreetly: this is where people live, not a museum.
Meticais in small notes, which make craft purchases and tips easier. Local crafts, worked silver, textiles and model dhows, are found mostly between the fortress and the museum.
Light but covering. Heat and humidity call for a hat, water and shade breaks, while churches and mosques expect shoulders and knees to be covered.
Not strictly, but it changes the visit considerably, especially in the macuti town where local company makes the place legible and conversations far easier.
