Moka () is a village in

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...

located in the Moka District, the western part of the village also lies in the

Plaines Wilhems District Plaines Wilhems () is a district of Mauritius. It is the most populous district, with its population estimated at 366,506 as the end of 2018. The district is mainly urban; it consists of four towns, the village of Midlands and part of two other ...

. Since 1967 it forms part of Constituency No. 8 Quartier Militaire and Moka. The village is administered by the Moka Village Council under the aegis of the Moka District Council. According to the census made by

Statistics Mauritius Statistics Mauritius formerly known as the Central Statistics Office (CSO) is the national statistical agency of Mauritius. It operates under the aegis of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and is responsible for all statistical a ...

in 2011, the population was at 8,846. The elevation is 203 meters and can be up to 425 meters in some places. Moka is directly on the other side of the

Moka Range The Moka Range is a mountain range in Mauritius. It contains two of Mauritius's three tallest peaks, Pieter Both and Le Pouce. It was formed from a basalt lava dome ten million years ago. The Moka Range forms a semicircle around the capital of Maur ...

from

Port Louis Port Louis (french: Port-Louis; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Polwi or , ) is the capital city of Mauritius. It is mainly located in the Port Louis District, with a small western part in the Black River District. Port Louis is the country's ec ...

. The village is close to the mountain

Le Pouce Le Pouce (; English: "The Thumb") is the third highest mountain in Mauritius, at 812 meters (2664 feet). Only Piton de la Petite Rivière Noire (828 m) and Pieter Both (820 m) are taller. It is named Le Pouce because of the thumb-shaped peak of ...

and the town Beau-Bassin Rose-Hill. Réduit is a suburb of the village where the

State House State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...

and University of Mauritius is situated. The village is also home to the Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation and the Mahatma Gandhi Institute.

History

Housing boom

Moka is centrally located in Mauritius and as such has experienced a real estate development boom in the past few years. This was mainly encouraged by the development of the CyberCity two kilometres away in Ebene. Another contributing factor to this property business was the fact that since Mauritius will not benefit from preferential prices for its sugar by the European Community and

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...

, sugar estates quickly started real estate business units that would convert the land under sugar cane culture to residential lands. From 2004 to 2006, Moka saw five property estate developments.

Weather

Moka has a

tropical wet climate The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

. Since it is in the southern hemisphere, February is the warmest month and August is the coolest. Temperatures normally can range from in February to at night in August. The dry season is in October, the wet season is in February. Temperature is somewhat constant.

Places

Schools

Schools in Moka include

Le Bocage International School Le Bocage International School (LBIS) is an English-medium, private international school offering educational services to boys and girls from the ages of 11–19. LBIS was founded in 1990 and is located at Mount Ory, Moka (Mauritius). LBIS is an ...

, Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Mahatma Gandhi Secondary School, St. Mary Roman Catholic School, and Ecole du Centre. University University of Mauritius

Charles Telfair Institute Curtin Mauritius is one of the international campuses of Curtin University (Perth, Western Australia) is a public research university known as Charles Telfair Campus in Mauritius. It is part of the tertiary education Commission and offers certifica ...

Other

Other important institutions in Moka are the: * Agricultural Marketing Board (AMB) which stocks vegetables (mainly potatoes) for local consumption * Subramaniam Bharati Eye Centre (AKA Moka Eye Hospital) which is the country's only specialized eye hospital. * Catholic Church

Notable people

*Jean Louis Brue du Garoutier, French soldier later retrieving the rank of

Maréchal de Camp ''Maréchal de camp'' (sometimes incorrectly translated as field marshal) was a general officer rank used by the French Army until 1848. The rank originated from the older rank of sergeant major general ( French: ''sergent-major général''). Se ...

(Brigade General) under

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

and serving as commander of the 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division during the

Waterloo Campaign The Waterloo campaign (15 June – 8 July 1815) was fought between the French Army of the North (France), Army of the North and two Seventh Coalition armies, an Anglo-allied army and a Prussian army. Initially the French army was commanded by ...

. * Thomas Shadrach James (Peersahib), teacher, linguist and herbalist in Australia *

Fabrice Lapierre Fabrice Lapierre (born 17 October 1983 in Réduit, Mauritius) is a Mauritian-born Australian long jumper. Lapierre placed 4th at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin, Germany, behind another Australian, Mitchell Watt, who took the ...

, Mauritian-born Australian long jumper

References

Moka District Populated places in Mauritius {{Mauritius-sport-stub