Dedza District - Geography

Geography

The western part of the district is on the Central African Plateau at an altitude of 1 200 to 1,600 m. Higher mountain ranges separate this from land alongside Lake Malawi in the Rift Valley at 500 m. The landscape is a mixture of grassland with granite outcrops, natural woodland and commercial pine plantations on the mountains and some bamboo forest nearer the lake. The wet season is November to April with almost no rainfall at other times. The higher altitudes have moderate temperatures and can be cold in June and July.

The main town is Dedza Township located on the M1 road 85km south of Lilongwe. The town has banks, post office, petrol stations, accommodation and a range of shops. There are smaller market towns with a post office, police station, shops and market—Lobi, Linthipe, Mayani, Mtakataka. Most of the people live in rural villages as subsistence farmers.

Read more about this topic:  Dedza District

Famous quotes containing the word geography:

    Yet America is a poem in our eyes; its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will not wait long for metres.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Ktaadn, near which we were to pass the next day, is said to mean “Highest Land.” So much geography is there in their names.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Where the heart is, there the muses, there the gods sojourn, and not in any geography of fame. Massachusetts, Connecticut River, and Boston Bay, you think paltry places, and the ear loves names of foreign and classic topography. But here we are; and, if we tarry a little, we may come to learn that here is best. See to it, only, that thyself is here;—and art and nature, hope and fate, friends, angels, and the Supreme Being, shall not absent from the chamber where thou sittest.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)