Manatuto, Timor-Leste

🇹🇱 Manatuto is a city of Manatuto District, East Timor. Manatuto Vila is capital of the subdistrict and district Manatuto. It is on the north coast of Timor, located 64 km to the east of Dili, the national capital, on the way to Baucau. The capital is known for its salt production and abundance of tamarind.

Geography Manatuto city is generally flat and low-lying, with single hills on its southern outskirts. It extends for approximately 6 km (3.7 mi) from the eastern end of Obrato aldeia in Suco Sau to the western end of the Maabat aldeia in Suco Maabat. It also stretches about 2 km (1.2 mi) south from Wetar Strait in its north.

Dumi Huhun (156 m (512 ft) AMSL), in the city's south-east near the main road connecting Dili and Baucau, is the tallest of its hills. Another hill, Saututu Hill (90 m (300 ft) AMSL), is on the eastern side of the city, along the road connecting Manatuto and the small community of Carlilu to its south.

Governance The city is the capital of Manatuto municipality, and is made up of four urban sucos. From west to east, the sucos are: Sau, Ailili, Aiteas, and Maabat. According to the 2010 census, urban sucos are those co-located with municipal capitals, or with certain qualities of population and social amenities. In the case of Manatuto, the city is in effect the urbanised part of the four sucos.

Manatuto suffered an excessive amount of damage and high murder rate in 1999 compared to other locations. The town is still being re-built.

Administrative posts The municipality's administrative posts (formerly sub-districts) are: • Barique-Natarbora • Laclo • Laclubar • Laleia • Manatuto • Soibada

The administrative posts are divided into 29 sucos ("villages") in total.

Demographics In addition to the official languages of East Timor (Tetum and Portuguese), a large part of the population of the municipality speaks the Malayo-Polynesian language Galoli, which is designated as a "national language" by the constitution.