Caála is a town and a municipality located 23 km west of the city of Huambo, in the namesake

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

Angola , national_anthem = "Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

. It was known as Vila Robert Williams while Angola was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Port ...

colony, after the famous

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

developer and

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...

magnate, Sir Robert Williams. The town has a population of 130,000 and the municipality a population of 279,792 according to the 2014 census.

History

Vila Robert Williams was the former name of Caála, in the then

Portuguese Angola Portuguese Angola refers to Angola during the historic period when it was a territory under Portuguese rule in southwestern Africa. In the same context, it was known until 1951 as Portuguese West Africa (officially the State of West Africa). I ...

(before 1975). The town of Robert Williams was just west of Nova Lisboa (now

Huambo Huambo, formerly Nova Lisboa ( English: ''New Lisbon''), is the third-most populous city in Angola, after the capital city Luanda and Lubango, with a population of 595,304 in the city and a population of 713,134 in the municipality of Huambo (C ...

) and was remarkable for huge outcroppings of

boulder In geology, a boulder (or rarely bowlder) is a rock fragment with size greater than in diameter. Smaller pieces are called cobbles and pebbles. While a boulder may be small enough to move or roll manually, others are extremely massive. In ...

s that jutted from the fields just outside the town. In those outcroppings researchers could find pottery shards, primitive metal smelting pits, and other archeological detritus.

Sports

Caála is home to the local popular soccer club Clube Recreativo da Caála who plays in Angola's top league, the

Girabola Girabola, or ''Campeonato Nacional de Futebol em Séniores Masculinos'', is the top division of Angolan football. It is organized by the Angolan Football Federation. The league winner and runner-up qualify for the CAF Champions League. Girabo ...

Transport

Caála is served by a station on the Benguela Railway and is also the junction for a branch railway to Cuima. There are no airports found within 15 km around Caala, however one airport is within 50 kilometers.

References

Populated places in Huambo Province Municipalities of Angola {{Angola-geo-stub

History

Sports

Transport

See also

References