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Tete is the capital city of Tete Province in Mozambique. It is located on the Zambezi River, and is the site of the one-kilometre-long Tete Suspension Bridge, built under the Portuguese rule of Mozambique and designed by Edgar Cardoso, a vital link on the major highway linking not just northern and southern parts of the country, but Zimbabwe and Malawi as well. This bridge and the Dona Ana Bridge downstream will soon be joined by a new bridge at Caia as the only bridges across the lower Zambezi. A Swahili trade centre before the colonial era, Tete continues to dominate the centre-west part of the country and region, and is the largest city on the Zambezi.
[edit] History
The region was an important Swahili trade centre before the colonial era. On the east coast of Africa the Portuguese were drawn to Mozambique and the Zambezi river by news of a local ruler, the Munhumutapa, who has fabulous wealth in gold. In their efforts to reach the Munhumutapa, the Portuguese established in 1531 two settlements far up the Zambezi - one of them, at Tete, some 260 miles from the sea. The Munhumutapa Kingdom and his gold mines remained autonomous and mostly isolated from the Portuguese. But in this region of east Africa - as in Guinea and Angola in the west - Portuguese involvement became sufficiently strong to survive into the 20th century. Under Portuguese influence Tete had become a market centre for ivory and gold by the mid-17th century. Given a town charter in 1761, it became a city in 1959.
[edit] Transportation
Chingodzi Airport (IATA: TET, ICAO: FQTT) on the north-east side of the city has a 2.4 km paved runway. Tete is also the terminus of the Moatize branch of the Mozambican Railways on the north bank of the river.
[edit] Demographics
| Year |
Population[1] |
| 1986 |
56 178 |
| 1997 |
104 832 |
| 2007 |
152 909 |
[edit] References
Coordinates: 16°10′S 33°36′E / -16.167, 33.6
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