Once Portugal's most important African colony, Mozambique is vast and stretching along Africa's southeast coast all the way down the Indian Ocean from Tanzania to South Africa. It borders Tanzania to the north, Zambia and Malawi to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and South Africa and Swaziland to the southwest.

The terrain varies with mainly the coastal lowlands, uplands in centre, high plateaus in northwest and mountains in west. To the east lies the Indian Ocean and a coastline of nearly 2,500km with beaches bordered by lagoons, coral reefs and strings of islands. Behind the coastline, a vast low plateau rising towards mountains in the west and north accounts for nearly half the area of Mozambique. The landscape of the plateau is savannah – more or less dry and open woodlands with tracts of short grass steppe.

Ravaged by years of civil war, famine and floods which have taken toll on the Mozambique's infrastructure and economy, most of its wildlife was eaten. Now three national parks have been established and fences are down along the border of South Africa's Kruger National Park. Animal numbers are beginning to recover and the borders of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park is scheduled to be open to enable wildlife to move freely in their natural home across international borders with South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Visiting Mozambique affords an opportunity to revisit and experience the remnants of the colonial era, with many Portuguese buildings now collapsing under the tropical heat. Maputo city offers some of Africa's finest seafood, the ports of Beira and Ilha de Moçambique are endowed with colonial architecture, but most visitors travel to Mozambique for a beach holiday in the small Indian Ocean hideaways found on two offshore archipelagos, Quirimbas and Bazaruto. Only a few small exclusive resorts are established on small and secluded islands circled by fine white-sand beaches.

The western and northern highlands are patched with forest. The Zambezi is the largest and most important of the 25 main rivers which flow through Mozambique into the Indian Ocean. The major concentrations of population, comprising many different ethnic groups, are along the coast and in the fertile and relatively productive river valleys.