# Lindi > A quiet Swahili port on a deep bay, once the capital of the whole German south — and the gateway to Tendaguru, the hill that gave the world's museums the tallest mounted dinosaur ever assembled. Canonical: https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/lindi Last updated: 2026-09-15 Edited by: Kabeer Dalvi (https://seeyoutanzania.com/about) ## At a glance - **Region:** Lindi Region, southern coast - **Population:** 174,126, Lindi Municipal (2022 census) - **Region total:** 1.19 million people (2022 census) - **Setting:** Lindi Bay, mouth of the Lukuledi River - **Distance:** About 450 km south of Dar es Salaam ## Map of Lindi Region **Districts and councils:** Kilwa · Lindi Municipal · Liwale · Mtama · Nachingwea · Ruangwa Councils as counted in the 2022 census (National Bureau of Statistics). ## Capital of the south, then left behind Lindi is an old town of the Swahili coast, a settlement of traders and fishermen on a deep, sheltered bay where the **Lukuledi River** meets the sea. Its name is usually explained as meaning *deep channel*. Like the rest of this coast it came under the influence of Oman before the Germans arrived. Under German rule Lindi became the **administrative centre of the entire Southern Province**, and it kept that role under the British. It was the south's capital until **1952**, when the administration moved to the new deep-water port at **Mtwara**, whose natural channel could take ocean-going ships. Lindi's harbour could not, and the town has lived quietly since. Its old centre is a **national historic site**. The region carries a larger history too. The **Maji Maji war** began in its north: in **July 1905** the men of **Nandete**, in the Matumbi hills north-west of Kilwa, pulled up three cotton plants grown under German compulsion as a declaration of war. The rising spread south through the Ngindo country to Lindi district and far beyond; the full story is on our page on [the Maji Maji war](https://seeyoutanzania.com/history/german-east-africa/maji-maji-war). The ruins of **Kilwa Kisiwani**, a World Heritage Site, are in Lindi Region as well — they have their own guide. ## Cashew, coconuts, and gas waiting offshore Lindi Region is Tanzania's **second cashew producer**, after Mtwara; the two together grow the great majority of the national crop. Coconuts line the coast — the town is sometimes called the country's coconut capital — and roselle, fishing and salt-making fill out the rest of the economy. The largest prospect lies offshore. Deep-water gas fields discovered off the southern coast underpin plans for a **liquefied natural gas plant** at **Likong'o**, just outside Lindi, estimated at around **US$42 billion**. Negotiations between the government and the international energy companies have run for years; construction, if it comes, would transform the town. Inland, the **Lindi Jumbo** mine became the country's first producing graphite mine in 2024 — see [mining in Tanzania](https://seeyoutanzania.com/sectors/mining). For now Lindi is one of the most unhurried towns on the coast, with long empty beaches such as **Ngande**, a waterfront of fishing boats, and very few visitors. **What the region lives on** - **Cashew:** Second only to Mtwara nationally - **Coconut:** Lindi is called the coconut capital - **Roselle:** Hibiscus, a smallholder cash crop - **Fishing & salt:** Along the bay and coast - **Natural gas:** Planned LNG plant at Likong'o ## The dinosaurs of Tendaguru About **60 kilometres north-west of Lindi** is **Tendaguru Hill**, one of the richest dinosaur sites on earth. Between **1909 and 1913** a German expedition led by **Werner Janensch** and **Edwin Hennig** dug here with the labour of up to **500 local workers**, who also carried the crated bones four to five days on foot to Lindi. More than **200 tonnes** of fossils were shipped from there to Berlin. Among them was the skeleton now called **Giraffatitan brancai**. Mounted in Berlin's **Museum für Naturkunde**, it stands **13.27 metres** tall and is recognised by Guinness World Records as the **tallest mounted dinosaur skeleton in the world**. British expeditions followed between 1924 and 1931. The museum now openly examines the colonial circumstances in which the bones were taken. Inland from the coast rises the **Rondo Plateau**, whose forest reserve holds one of eastern Africa's most important concentrations of endemic plants, and the **Rondo dwarf galago** — at under 100 grams the smallest known galago, and one of the world's most endangered primates. Much of the region's interior is farmland and miombo, running west towards Nyerere National Park. ## Towns, parks and places across Lindi Region ### Kilwa (Town & World Heritage) Kilwa Masoko, the old town of Kilwa Kivinje, and the ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara. [Read the guide](https://seeyoutanzania.com/guides/kilwa) ### Nandete and the Matumbi hills (Heritage site) Where the Maji Maji war began in July 1905, north-west of Kilwa. ### Nachingwea (Town) An inland district town that was one of the centres of the groundnut scheme. It has an airport. ### Nyerere National Park (National park) Part of the country's largest national park lies in the west of the region. [Park page](https://seeyoutanzania.com/parks/nyerere) ## What to see ### Lindi Bay and the old town *Historic town.* A national historic site: the old centre, the waterfront and the German-era buildings of the former southern capital. ### The German boma and colonial buildings *Architecture.* Abandoned and decaying administrative buildings of the colonial south. Look from outside; some are unsafe. ### Ngande beach *Coast.* A long palm-lined beach near town, usually with almost nobody on it. ### Tendaguru Hill *Palaeontology.* Where Giraffatitan was dug up. There is little to see on site today — go for the history, with a local guide. ### Rondo Forest Reserve *Forest.* Coastal forest on the Rondo Plateau, with rare plants and the tiny Rondo dwarf galago. Birders' country. ### Kilwa Kisiwani *World Heritage.* The ruins of the medieval sultanate, in the north of the region. See our Kilwa guide. ## Before you go - **Getting there:** By road on the paved coastal route from Dar es Salaam, about 450 km. The nearest daily flights are to Mtwara, about 105 km south. - **Getting around:** Town is small. Tendaguru and Rondo need a 4x4, a driver and local guidance. - **When to come:** June to October is dry. Avoid the long rains, roughly March to May, for anything inland. - **Staying:** Accommodation is simple and limited. Book ahead, and plan the south as a combined Kilwa–Lindi–Mtwara trip. - **Respect:** A conservative, largely Muslim coast. Cover shoulders and knees away from the beach. - **Money:** Shillings. ATMs in town, but carry enough cash for inland trips. ## Checked against - [2022 Population and Housing Census — administrative units](https://www.nbs.go.tz/statistics/topic/census-2022), National Bureau of Statistics, Tanzania - [The World of Dinosaurs — Giraffatitan and the Tendaguru expedition](https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/en/plan-your-visit/exhibition/the-world-of-dinosaurs/), Museum für Naturkunde Berlin - [Tendaguru Formation — expeditions and finds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tendaguru_Formation), Wikipedia - [The Maji Maji rebellion, 1905–7 — A Modern History of Tanganyika](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/modern-history-of-tanganyika/maji-maji-rebellion-19057/2659F8B3A7A22BB4D502F34FCC619405), Cambridge University Press (John Iliffe) - [Contents of containers of fossils from the 1909 expedition reconstructed](https://phys.org/news/2023-02-contents-fossils-reconstructed-nondestructively.html), Phys.org / Museum für Naturkunde - [Fresh hope as Tanzania's $42bn LNG project moves to final legal framework](https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/business/fresh-hope-as-tanzania-s-42bn-lng-project-moves-to-final-legal-framework-5320844), The Citizen - [Cashew farmers earn Sh1.3tr as production heads toward record](https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/business/cashew-farmers-earn-sh1-3tr-as-production-heads-toward-record-5311708), The Citizen - [Lindi — history, economy, Lindi Historic Town](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindi), Wikipedia - [Rondo Plateau and the Rondo dwarf galago](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rondo_Plateau), Wikipedia - [Nachingwea District — groundnut scheme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nachingwea), Wikipedia - [First graphite concentrate shipment completed — Lindi Jumbo (July 2024)](https://www.miningweekly.com/article/first-graphite-concentrate-shipment-completed-2024-07-26), Mining Weekly