The island group is situated in the Indian Ocean at 12°21' Southern latitude
and 40°32' Eastern longitude about 10km off the coast of Mozambique. There are
approximately 4000 inhabitants living on this island with tropical climate. The
temperatures are fair from May till October but pretty high between November and
April.
The first references to this island are from arabic sources dated back to the
8th century. The first Europeans to discover Quirimba were the Portuguese who
founded their first trading posts in the beginning of the 16th century. During
the 18th century French slave traders used this island as a base and Quirimba
became the capital of the region. In 1754 the first fort was built to defend the
island from the French pirates and the Arabs coming from Zanzibar. Nowadays
there are still many buildings on the island showing the influences of Arabic,
Persian, Indian and European architecture. Today Quirimba belongs to Mozambique.
Amateur radio: prefix C97, DXCC entity: Mozambique, IOTA reference: AF-061.
<DX-NL 1260 September 11, 2001>
|