Ilha de Moçambique, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1991, occupies a small coral island three kilometers long and between 200 and 500 meters wide off the northern coast. The Portuguese established a settlement here in 1507, and the island served as the capital of Portuguese East Africa from 1507 to 1898. The Fortaleza de São Sebastião, completed in 1558, is the oldest complete fort still standing in sub-Saharan Africa. The Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte, built in 1522, is considered the oldest European building in the southern hemisphere. Stone Town, occupying the northern tip of the island, contains Arab-influenced architecture from the Portuguese colonial period, including the Palace of São Paulo, which housed the captain-general. The island measures approximately three kilometers by 400 meters. Visitors reach it via a single-lane concrete bridge completed in 1967, measuring 3.8 kilometers.
Gorongosa National Park covers 4,067 square kilometers in central Mozambique at the southern end of the East African Rift Valley. The Portuguese colonial government established it as a hunting reserve in 1920 and designated it a national park in 1960. The Mozambican Civil War from 1977 to 1992 reduced large mammal populations by approximately 95 percent. The Gorongosa Restoration Project, initiated in 2004 through a partnership between the Mozambican government and the Carr Foundation, has documented population recoveries. The park recorded approximately 100,000 large mammals in 2018, up from an estimated 5,000 in 1994. Mount Gorongosa rises to 1,863 meters at the park's edge. The park contains miombo woodland, floodplain grassland, and rainforest on Mount Gorongosa. Species present include elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo, hippopotamus, waterbuck, and over 500 bird species.
The Bazaruto Archipelago consists of five islands—Bazaruto, Benguerra, Magaruque, Santa Carolina, and Bangué—located 10 to 25 kilometers off the coast of Inhambane Province. The Mozambican government declared the area a national park in 1971, covering 1,430 square kilometers of ocean and island. Bazaruto, the largest island, measures 37 kilometers long and up to 7 kilometers wide. The islands contain freshwater lakes, including Lake Nhambavale on Bazaruto. The marine reserve protects dugongs, with an estimated population of 120 to 250 individuals as of 2012. Five species of sea turtle nest on the beaches. Coral reefs surround the islands, though cyclone damage has reduced live coral cover. The islands formed as sand dunes separated from the mainland through rising sea levels approximately 7,500 years ago.
Maputo, the capital since 1898, sits at 25.9°S, 32.6°E on Maputo Bay at the mouth of the Tembe River. The Portuguese founded Lourenço Marques, as it was known until 1976, in 1781. The city received railway connections to Pretoria in 1895. The Maputo Central Train Station, designed by architects Alfredo Augusto Lisboa de Lima, Mario Veiga, and Ferreira da Costa with decorative ironwork attributed to Gustave Eiffel's workshop, opened in 1916. The dome's ironwork was fabricated in Belgium. The Fortaleza da Nossa Senhora da Conceição, begun in 1787, overlooks the bay. The Iron House, a prefabricated structure designed by Gustave Eiffel in 1892, stands on Praça da OMM. The Natural History Museum, established in 1911, contains the complete mounted remains of an elephant killed at Gorongosa in 1972, believed to be the largest elephant on public display. The Maputo Central Market, built in 1903, occupies a full city block.
The Quirimbas Archipelago extends along approximately 250 kilometers of coastline in Cabo Delgado Province, comprising 32 coral islands and islets. Ibo Island served as the regional capital from 1763 to 1902. Three fortifications—Fort São João Baptista (1791), Fort Santo António, and Fort São José—remain standing on Ibo. Stone houses from the 18th and 19th centuries line the streets. The Quirimbas National Park, established in 2002, covers 7,500 square kilometers including marine and terrestrial areas. The islands contain mangrove forests covering approximately 40,000 hectares. Commercial dhow trade between the islands and the East African coast continues using vessels built with traditional methods.