A Guide to Beautiful Rwanda Cities, Maps and Tips

Rwanda cities could be smaller in size but these are not ordinary cities in Africa. Besides the new trends of clean cities, community living, peaceful settlements, the cities have their own characters. In general, you can categorize Rwanda cities into five provinces: the Kigali province, the southern province, the Northern province, the Western province, and the Eastern province.

The Kigali province includes Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, and the other two cities, Kicukiro and Rutongo.
The Southern province includes Nyanza (capital of the province), Muhanga, Kamonyi, Ruhango, Butare, Gisagara, Nyaruguru, and Nyamagabe.
The Northern province includes Ruhengeri and Byumba.
The Western province includes Kibuye (capital of the province), Cyangugu, and Gisenyi.
The Eastern province includes Rwamagana (capital of the province) and Kibungo.

Rwanda Cities Map

Rwanda cities map showing Rwanda and the surrounding countries with international borders, prefectures boundaries, the national capital Kigali, prefecture capitals, major cities, roads, tracks, and airports.

What Are The Major Cities In Rwanda?

1- Kigali

Kigali is a major city in Rwanda mainly because of its population size and its strategic point as the capital of the country. With more than 800,000 inhabitants, the city became a multinational destination.

Kigali became the capital of Rwanda in 1962 after it got its independence from Belgium and German oppression. Soon the city became an economic, cultural, and transport center for the whole nation.

Kigali is located in the geographic center of Rwanda, at 1°57′S 30°4′E. The city of Kigali is divided into three administrative districts: the Nyarugenge in the southwest, the Kicukiro in the southeast, and the Gasabo 

Kigali is also a beautiful place with steep slopes and mountains including the mount Kigali and Mount Jali.

The city has a temperate tropical highland climate which makes the city cool most of the year. The elevation together with the location limits the city’s daily temperature between 15 and 27 °C (59 and 81 °F). Kigali is also one of the Rwanda cities that gets rainy seasons twice a year.

The rain comes twice between February to June and between September and December. The rainy season is separated by dry seasons comes with an average rainfall of 155 mm. or 6 in.

2- Butare

With an alternative name of Huye, the Rwandan city of Butare inhabits more than 89,000 people.

The city is associated with the university that was founded in 2013. The city is much known with the student activities that later gained its nick name as a university city. Butare is education or intellectual center of the counrty.

It is possible to catch a place from the Butare airport to Kigali.

3- Gitarama(Muhanga) 

Gitarama is one of the Rwanda cities that now called Muhanga. The city is located 45 km or 28 mi. southwest of the capital.

Today Muhanga is the second-largest city in Rwanda with a population of more than 87 thousand. It is also a transit location to the west and south of the country.

4- Ruhengeri

This Rwanda city is useful because of its population size that is above 86 thousand. It is also located near tourist attraction natural features of the country including Lake Burera and Lake Ruhondo and Volcanoes national park and places where the mountain Gorillas live.

This makes Ruhengeri a tourist destination point as well and is provided with hotels and other tourist services.

5- Gisenyi

Gisenyi is another historic City of Rwanda that is located in the northwest part of the country. Gisenyi is known for its resort on the shores of Lake Kivu and its hotels and three sandy beaches.

This is one of the Rwanda cities that is a tourist attraction for its water sports.

The northern shore is associated with lava formation from the Mountain Nyiragongo. The ereption affected the two Rwanda cities: Goma and Gisenyi. Gisenyi escaped the lava flow twice in 1977 and 2002

How Many Cities Are There In Rwanda?

19 Cities. 5 provinces.

Rwanda has 19 important cities categorized under 5 provinces. These Rwanda cities are rather smaller in size and none of these cities have more than a million population. Ten Rwanda cities have between 10,000 and 100,000 population. Kigali has about 745,000 population.

What Is the Capital City Of Rwanda?

Kigali.

Kigali is also called a land of thousand hills, which is also explains its location in the hills of Rwanda.

Kigali is one of the cleanest destinations in Africa, it has banned the use of plastic bags. To encourage environmental consciousness and a clean city, Kigali also encourages car-free days every month.

Is Kigali The Most Beautiful City In Africa?

Kigali the capital of Rwanda is regarded as the cleanest city in Africa. In 2020 BBC put out a note on Rwanda cities especially Kigali as inviting cities of Africa.

Rwanda Cities by Pop

The 2012 census showed that Kigali is one of the most populous cities in Rwanda. This city of Rwanda is followed by Gisenyi and Ruhengeri that contain a population of forth of the Kigali population.

What is Vision City Rwanda?

Vision city Rwanda is a housing project being built in Kigali. Being built on 158 ha, it is one of the largest residential housing projects in the country. At the end of the project period, The Vision city will have 4500 households or units. By 2017, about 500 units were completed.

Finally,

Rwanda cities may appear small in size but these are not ordinary cities. Rwanda cities rather have natural, cultural, and geographical contributions to the overall setting of the continent.

Rwanda cities are tourist destinations due to their water , land, and living attractions. These attractions are as extreme as open lava from volcanos to water sorts.

Rwanda cities are also service centers, educations centers, and even technology centers.

The new vision cities also contribute to the future aspirations of Africa to build better cities.

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