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Lilongwe

Capital of MalawiLilongwe lies in the central region of Malawi, along the Lilongwe River, about 1,050 m above sea level.

Why it's the capital

Lilongwe began around 1902 as a small post set up by a local leader, Njewa, and became an administrative centre in 1904. In 1965 President Hastings Kamuzu Banda chose it to boost growth in central and northern Malawi, and in 1975 it became the capital.

Fun facts

  1. The city takes its name from the Lilongwe River.
  2. Many districts have numbers instead of names: the city is divided into Areas 1 to 58, numbered in the order they were developed.
  3. The Old City has the markets and bus stations, while the New City holds government offices, embassies and hotels.

Finding it on the globe

Malawi is a long, thin country with Lake Malawi along most of its eastern side. Lilongwe is west of the lake, in the middle part, close to the borders with Zambia and Mozambique.

Easy to mix up

Some players pick Blantyre, Malawi's commercial centre, or Zomba, which was the capital until 1975.

Sources: Wikipedia: Lilongwe, Wikipedia: Malawi