Bay of Dili

The Bay of Dili (Baía de Díli, Tetum: Baía Dili) is a bay on the north coast of Timor-Leste adjacent to Dili, its capital city. The bay forms part of Ombai Strait, which separates the Alor Archipelago from the islands of Wetar, Atauro, and Timor in the Lesser Sunda Islands.

The bay is located on the southern side of Ombai Strait, immediately to the north of the similarly named Dili municipality. It extends from the mouth of the Comoro River in the west to Cristo Rei Beach, Cape Fatucama, and the Cristo Rei of Dili statue in the north east.

Early records about Timor, especially before the 1700s, are sparse. Portuguese settlers are said to have arrived in the Bay of Dili in 1520, and to have established a small settlement there. A quarter of a millennium later, in 1769, the governor of Portuguese Timor sought to break the influence of powerful local families in Lifau, Oecusse, his then residence, by moving the colonial administration and 1,200 people to the shore of the bay, at the site of what would become Dili, the colonial capital. The bay's location at the centre of Timor's north coast, and its natural features, were favourable for the establishment of such a capital. Its waters were calm, and the combination of Capes Fatucama and Tibar, and the offshore island of Atauro, provided shelter for ships at anchor. Although the terrain on the bay's shores was swampy and unhealthy, there was also arable land that could be used for the cultivation of cereals, and a supply of drinking water. For many decades, Dili evolved only slowly. At the turn of the twentieth century, there was significant development of the city, under the governorship of José Celestino da Silva (1894–1908). However, most of the buildings constructed at that time were destroyed during World War II. In the 1950s, Dili was reconstructed, according to a plan that included the siting of residential nuclei along the two-lane, one-way street now known as Avenida Marginal, on the shore of the bay. With its lining of substantial, mature trees, and its broad pathway for pedestrians, the Avenida became the capital's favourite public promenade. On 7 December 1975,

Data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).