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

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

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

. It was known as Vila Robert Williams while Angola was a Portuguese colony, after the

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

developer and

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

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 Vila may refer to: People *Vila (surname) Places Andorra * Vila, Andorra, a town in the parish of Encamp Brazil * Vila Bela da Santíssima Trindade, a municipality in the State of Mato Grosso * Vila Boa, Goiás, a municipality in the State of ...

was the former name of Caála, in the then

Portuguese Angola In southwestern Africa, Portuguese Angola was a historical Evolution of the Portuguese Empire, colony of the Portuguese Empire (1575–1951), the overseas province Portuguese West Africa of Estado Novo (Portugal), Estado Novo Portugal (1951–1 ...

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

Huambo Huambo, formerly Nova Lisboa (English language, English: ''New Lisbon''), is the third-most populous List of cities and towns in Angola, city in Angola, after the capital city Luanda and Lubango, with a population of 595,304 in the city and a pop ...

) 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 de Séniores Masculinos'', is the top division of Angolan association football, football. It is organized by the Angolan Football Federation. The term "Girabola" () is a creation of the nationalist, ...

Transport

Caála is served by a station on the

Benguela Railway The Benguela Railway () is a 3 ft 6 in gauge railways, Cape gauge railway line that runs through Angola from west to east, being the largest and most important railway line in the country. It also connects to Tenke, Democratic Republic of the C ...

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