Cities of Comoros: Moroni (Grand Comor Island)

The largest city of the Comor’s Archipelago and since 1962 – its capital (since 1947 – the capital of French possessions), Moroni is also known under his old name Port-O-Butre. His name can be translated from a local dialect "In fire", which quite accurately reflects the location of the city at the base of the huge Vulcan of the Karta forever breathing.

The city is quite young – the settlement of people existed at this place at least from the XIII century of our era, but the modern status of Moroni received only at the beginning of the 20th century. The city itself is more like some Mediterranean port, with the same stone moles and crowded clusters of houses under tiled roofs, protruding from the greenery of fruit gardens. The harbor is framed by numerous stone coats and boats, which are drawn by parallel lines by almost 6 kilometers, and the planning of the city seems to be specifically designed to give the Sun more access to the inner courtyards of houses framed by thickets of oranges and other fruit trees.

The architecture of the city in itself could guarantee a visit to the Comoros of thousands of tourists – in the old Arab quarter or medina the origin of the population of the Comoros, with his head, gives himself a two-story Arabic building buildings, which literally sophisticated with numerous galleries, balustrades, superbly carved wooden door grids and shutters. Through the whole of the old part of the city, a network of such old and narrow streets, we also obviously inherited the traditions of Arabic architecture. Another testimony of this is the many old mosques, the most colorful of which is considered to be the Mosque of the Vendsred;, from the top of which you can see almost the entire city and adjacent areas of the island.

Walking from the port through the labyrinth of the climbing streets and steep medina lanes is quite easy and pleasant – on the road you can find a lot of examples of traditional Arabic architecture, as well as many samples of architecture, upcoming the heritage of African cultures. And you can complete the acquaintance with the city in the area of ​​Ale-Desa Minsters, on which the main streets of the city. Another attraction of the city is the big and colorful Bazaar Volovolo, considered the best trading point on Ngazyja (Grand Comor).

Many hotels and bungalows with restaurants and cafes are located north of the city, but, unfortunately, only a couple of cafes in the Moroni itself have a view of the harbor, which depresses many tourists. A variety of routes leading through the rainy tropical forests to the top of the Cartal volcano, to beautiful waterfalls or beautiful deserted shores of the capital. Lovers of outdoor activities can climb the top of the cartal and even descend into the crater of this acting volcano, which is one of the largest active crater in the world.