Skip to content
Sofala
EntityQ1361151· pop 21· linked from 177 articles

thumb|Sofala in 1683 AD, sketch by Mallet Sofala , at present known as Nova Sofala , was a prominent Swahili city-state. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique. The first recorded use of this port town was by Mogadishan merchants. One possible etymology for Sofala is "go and cultivate" or " go and dig" in the Somali language, showing the city as a hub for gold.

~8 min read

Encyclopedic overview

5 sections
Contents
  • History
  • Portuguese arrival
  • Conclusion
  • Citations
  • References

thumb|Sofala in 1683 AD, sketch by Mallet Sofala , at present known as Nova Sofala , was a prominent Swahili city-state. It is located on the Sofala Bank in Sofala Province of Mozambique. The first recorded use of this port town was by Mogadishan merchants. One possible etymology for Sofala is "go and cultivate" or " go and dig" in the Somali language, showing the city as a hub for gold.

==History== One of the oldest harbours documented in Southern Africa, medieval Sofala was erected on the edge of a wide estuary formed by the Buzi River (called Rio de Sofala in older maps).

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

Gallery (2)

On the map

2 mapped locations