Huambo

Huambo was founded in 1912 as Nova Lisboa and laid out on a generous grid with wide avenues, squares and public buildings, intended at one point to become the colonial capital. It sits at around seventeen hundred metres on the central plateau, which makes it cool and green, and jacarandas along the streets flower purple in September and October. The Benguela railway runs through, and the city is the natural base for the highlands around it.

Background

The city takes its name from Wambu, an old Ovimbundu kingdom, one of 14 on the central Angolan plateau. It was founded on 8 August 1912, and its origins are tied to the Benguela Railway, whose building had begun in 1902 at Lobito on the coast. A mild climate and plentiful water made it a good place for a hub on the line, which reached the Belgian Congo border in 1929. In 1928 it was renamed Nova Lisboa, after the capital of Portugal. Ranked by population it now comes third in Angola, after Luanda and Lubango, with 836,293 people in the municipality in the 2024 census. It lies about 220 km east of Benguela and 600 km southeast of Luanda.

Source: Wikipedia, "Huambo"

Highlights

• The jacaranda avenues - wide streets flowering purple in September and October.
• The planned grid - the 1912 layout of squares and boulevards.
• The railway station - a stop on the Benguela line crossing the country.
• The plateau setting - cool highland country at around 1,700 metres.

When to go

May to September is the dry season and most comfortable, with jacaranda flowering at its end. The rains from October to April bring green landscape and afternoon storms. Nights are cold in the dry season.

Good to know

Many of the grand colonial buildings are in poor condition. There is limited formal sightseeing and the city is a base rather than an attraction. Accommodation is limited and expensive.

Nearby

Mount Moco is northwest, and the central plateau runs in all directions.

Key facts