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Lichinga is the capital city of Niassa Province of Mozambique. It lies on the Lichinga Plateau at an altitude of , east of Lake Niassa (Lake Malawi). The town was founded as Vila Cabral as a farming and military settlement. It is served by Lichinga Airport. The province borders Ruvuma Region in Tanzania.

OverviewAI-generated

Lichinga is a city in Mozambique that serves as the capital of Niassa Province. It is situated within Lichinga District and has a population of 142,253. The city covers an area of 280 square kilometers and stands at an elevation of 1,398 meters above sea level. Portuguese is the official language, and the local time zone is UTC+01:00.

The city is twinned with Vila Nova de Poiares. While current weather data indicates a temperature of 16.97 degrees, the primary administrative and geographic details define its status as a major urban center in the region.

Synthesized by Vinony from 39 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Open Meteo, Openweathermap, OpenStreetMap, GeoNames, Vinony graph, Geo. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Weather now

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14°clear sky
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7-day forecast

via Open-Meteo

Place details

Locality
Lichinga
Region
Niassa
Country
Moçambique
Population
281,341
Timezone
Africa/Maputo

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Key facts

Settlement.official_name
Lichinga
Settlement.image_skyline
Conselho Municipal Lichinga.jpg
Settlement.image_caption
Municipal Council of Lichinga
Settlement.pushpin_map
Mozambique
Settlement.pushpin_mapsize
240
Settlement.subdivision_type
Country
Settlement.subdivision_type1
Provinces
Settlement.subdivision_name1
Niassa Province
Settlement.subdivision_type2
District
Settlement.area_total_km2
280
Settlement.population_as_of
2017 census
Settlement.population_total
213361
Settlement.population_density_km2
auto
Settlement.timezone
CAT
Settlement.utc_offset
+2
Settlement.elevation_m
1398
Settlement.blank_name
Climate
Settlement.blank_info
Cwb

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Instance of
big city
Official name
Lichinga
Country
Mozambique
Official language
Portuguese
Population
142253
Area
280
Elevation
1398
Time zone
UTC+01:00
Capital of
Niassa Province
Image
Conselho Municipal Lichinga.jpg
Show 4 more facts
twinned administrative body
Vila Nova de Poiares
Commons category
Lichinga
native label
Lichinga
Sources (5)

via Wikidata · CC0

Travel guide

Get around

Lichinga is small enough to get around by foot, or via bicycle taxi or other local transport.

Buy

A good number of stores are available offering food both local and international, construction supplies, clothing, electronics, etc.

Eat

A number of restaurants catering to a wide range of budgets is available.

Travel guide from Wikivoyage (CC BY-SA 4.0)

~3 min read

Encyclopedic overview

9 sections
Contents
  • History
  • Early history
  • Portuguese rule
  • After independence from Portugal
  • Climate
  • Demographics
  • Transport
  • Notable people
  • References

Lichinga is the capital city of Niassa Province of Mozambique. It lies on the Lichinga Plateau at an altitude of , east of Lake Niassa (Lake Malawi). The town was founded as Vila Cabral as a farming and military settlement. It is served by Lichinga Airport. The province borders Ruvuma Region in Tanzania.

==History== ===Early history=== The region that is Niassa province is the ancestral homeland of the Yao and Makua. ===Portuguese rule=== Founded by the Portuguese colonial administration in 1931 as Vila Cabral, the town was designed to become a fast growth urban centre, its streets and avenues paying attention to a projected future growth. Vila Cabral was upgraded to city status in 1962. In the early 1960s its population was 27,000 inhabitants; by 1970 it had 36,715. The city developed as an agriculture and colonial service centre until the independence of Mozambique from Portugal in 1975. In addition, the town's economy included forestry-based activities and was surrounded by a pine tree plantation.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Lichinga” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

On the map

4 mapped locations