Liuli

Liuli, formerly known as Sphinx Hafen (German: Sphinxhafen), is a settlement on the Tanzanian shore of Lake Malawi in the Mbinga District of Ruvuma province. It is notable for being the site of the first naval action of World War I.

The sphinx rocks

The settlement is distinguished on the lake shore by a sphinx-like series of 7 rocks lying offshore. The rocks indicate deep water, leading to its development by the Germans as a ship repair base. The Anglican missionary William Percival Johnson described the rocks as follows:

1914–18: Sphinxhafen in the war on Lake Nyasa

On 13 August 1914, in the first naval action of World War I, the British lake steamer gunboat HMS Gwendolen caught the German armed steamer Hermann von Wissmann on a slipway at Sphinxhafen. The German steamship was named after the explorer Hermann von Wissmann who raised funds for the vessel as an anti-slavery gunboat in 1890. The HMS Gwendolen commenced bombarding the German port. The King's African Rifles later attacked Sphinxhafen in May 1915.