Quirimbas Archipelago is a fascinating chain of 32 coral-islands which are home to world’s richest corals and is located in the Northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado Province. The view of the Islands is simply breathtaking and captivates its visitors with the abundant array of marine-life it hosts. You can book an affordable cheap flights to Mozambique in advance to get things started.
Laying in the Indian-Ocean off the north-eastern Mozambique, the Quirimbas Islands are close to Pemba, the provincial capital of Cabo Delgado and consist of around 27 islands which include the famous Matemo, Ibo, Quirimba, Quisiva, Quirimba and the Rolas Island. As of today many of the islands are not inhibited but they were originally home to many fishing settlements and the population of the islands grew around the Arab trading-posts and also thrived under Portuguese slave-trade.
What attracts the visitors to these islands and the reason they are famous for are the high-quality diving sites they host which includes phenomenal adrenaline fueled vertical drop-offs with some of them reaching up to heights of 400 meters. The most southern island of the chain is the Quirimbas Archipelago covering a vast area of mainland-forest included in the Quirimbas National Park which is a conservation effort to get the area protected and preserved. The area is famous for its reef fish size along with the parrotfish, morays, angelfish cave bass and many other species reaching phenomenal sizes.
As the climate of the area is tropical-humid with rainfall being a little unpredictable, you can visit the islands at any time of the year with the main attractions of the islands being diving, fishing, snorkeling and paying a visit to the Ibo Island’s ruins. Ibo Island being the most visited island in Quirimbas Archipelago offers its visitors a chance to explore its fascinating history along with the beautiful buildings it has. Vasco Da Gama in 1502 rested in the Ibo Island which is located in the north of Quirimba. Later on the Ibo Island became one of the major trading-centers for slaves and ivories. What compels visitors the most to visit the Ibo Islands is perhaps island’s two centuries old ghost-town and the forts made in the sixteenth century.
The ghost town once had a cathedral, three forts and many palatial homes. Overlooking the harbor’s entrance, the main fort was built (looks like a pentagon) to protect Portuguese-Mozambique from the French-Comores towards the east. Just three other pentagonal-forts are remaining with one in Cape Town, one in Maputo and one in Mombasa.
You can find the Quilalea Sanctuary off the Beach of Quilálea Island and is a very interesting place to visit indeed as the area is considered by the WWF to be of global importance from conservation point of view.
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