Beira

Beira, region and former province, N central Portugal, S of the Douro River. The old capital was Coimbra. The province extended to the Atlantic coast between the Douro and the Mondego and SE of the Mondego to the upper Tagus. The region is now occupied by the provinces of Beira Alta (capital Viseu), Beira Baixa (capital Castelo Branco), and part of Beira Litoral (capital Coimbra) and is further subdivided into the districts of Aveiro, Viseu, Coimbra, Guarda, and Castelo Branco. The region is traversed by the Serra da Estrela, Portugal's highest mountain range. Grains, fruits, and olives are grown. Industries include fishing and the manufacture of textiles and forest products. The area had been recovered from the Moors even before Portugal was formed, but Moorish attacks continued into the 13th cent. Later Beira was contested in the incessant Portuguese-Castilian wars.

Beira, city (1997 pop. 397,368), capital of Sofala province, E central Mozambique, a seaport on the Mozambique Channel (an arm of the Indian Ocean), at the mouths of the Púngoè and Búzi rivers. A commercial center, the city grew (beginning in 1891) as the terminus of a railroad into the interior. Beira has handled the foreign trade of Congo (Kinshasa), Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi as well as of Mozambique, but rail service was interrupted by bombings during the war for Zimbabwean independence in the late 1970s and was ultimately halted as a result of the Mozambique civil war.

beira: see antelope.

Coastal city (pop., 2007: 436,240), central Mozambique. Situated on the Mozambique Channel at the mouths of the Púngoè and Búzi rivers, it is the chief port for central Mozambique and for landlocked Zimbabwe and Malawi. Founded in 1891 as a trading company's headquarters, it passed to Portuguese administration in 1942 and then to independent Mozambique in 1975. It is the terminus of railways from South Africa, Zimbabwe, Congo (Kinshasa), Zambia, and Malawi.

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Beira can refer to:

• Beira (mythology), the mother to all the gods and goddesses in the Celtic mythology of Scotland
• Beira, Portugal, the name of a region (and former province) in north-central Portugal; three provinces were later known by the name:
• Beira Alta (extinct)
• Beira Baixa (extinct)
• Beira Litoral (extinct)
• Beira, Mozambique, a port city in Mozambique
• Beira Railroad Corporation, operating in Mozambique
• Prince of Beira, a title within the Portuguese royal house
• Beira (antelope) (scientific name, Dorcatragus megalotis), a species of antelope