Located in central-southern Angola, Luanda is the capital of the country and is one of the budding hot spots for tourists accompanying the four million people that already live there. Founded in 1575, this capital is filled with history especially when you considered the recently ended civil war. Originally one of the major slaving ports and under Portuguese rule, it is now considered to be the cultural heat of Angola, something that pictures of Luanda can give you some idea of.

The capital city is currently undergoing massive reconstruction work following the thirty year long civil war and just a few of the changes that are likely to be happening over the following years are those to the landscape. Perhaps it is wise to visit this city within Angola now, before the scenery changes to a much more modern time! The roads are being widened, re-routing of many of the roads to make way for a growing tourism industry with investment Angola growing at a fast pace and even new six lane highways are under construction to make this city a much easier one to travel around in. Housing is also changing. The slums are being replaced with beautiful social housing developments which means that the old style of homes will no longer be something to marvel at and take photos of. Those interested in photography can find worse places to shoot than Luanda and Angola as a whole and when you search for photos of Angola on the internet, you can understand why the changes to the city of Luanda are going to have such an impact!

The railways are something that are also being transformed with investment in Angola growing so fast. The recently ended civil war left many of these railroads closed and unsuitable for use but with money quite literally being pumped into the country from many exports including diamonds, oil and minerals, there are now possibilities than ever to better the country. There is also a new international airport being constructed to ensure that tourists now have an easier ride when making their way to this country and the city of Luanda which means that things can only get bigger and better!

Luanda itself is actually constructed from two parts – the lower or older Luanda and the newer and upper Luanda (Baixa de Luanda and Cidade Alta respectively) The older section of Luanda has more to offer the explorers among you with old style buildings in a colonial fashion and narrow streets which just adds to the photographic appeal. Within these two sections, there are nine districts or municipios as they are locally known.

Despite being a tropical place of the world, the temperatures are high as you would expect them to be but surprisingly, the air is rather dry. There is a current named the Benguela current that prevents the moisture in the air from being condensed into rain so this is a city of Angola that suffers regularly at the hands of very arid weather.

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