Maputo, formerly (until 1976) Lourenço Marques, port city and capital of Mozambique. It lies along the north bank of Espírito Santo Estuary of Delagoa Bay, an inlet of the Indian Ocean. Maputo derived its former name from the Portuguese trader who first explored the region in 1544. The town developed around a Portuguese fortress completed in 1787. Created a city town in 1887, it superseded the town of Moçambique as the capital of Portuguese East Africa in 1907.
Additional Information:
Maputo is located on the west side of Maputo Bay, at the estuary mouth of the Tembe River at the Indian Ocean in southeast Africa, about 60 km east of the border triangle of South Africa's Pretoria province, Swaziland and Mozambique.
