Maputo

     The capitol of Mozambique was renamed Maputo in 1976. The city is a port and lies on the north side of the Espirito Santo Estuary of Delagoa Bay on the Indian Ocean. The city was called Lourenço Marques after a Portuguese trader who first explored the area in 1544. It was created a "city town" in 1887, and became the capitol in 1907.
     The map on the stamp is based on an early unidentified, Portuguese map, and may reflect the city as it was around 1887. The fortress whose outlines are indicated on the stamp was completed a hundred years earlier.