In the center of the city of Beira in Mozambique, overlooking the ocean, the four-storey Grand Hotel still stands tall, though it is nothing more than a desecrated shell. Once reminiscent of colonial splendor, the luxury flagship was originally built in 1952 to welcome all of Africa’s wealthiest and most elite society, yet such guests have long since deserted the place bringing about the entire collapse of the lavish hotel by 1963. Now the Grand Hotel Beira is host to a population ranging between 2,000 and 3,500 of squatters, poor families and estranged persons taking shelter in this skeleton of concrete, trying to survive amid the ruins.
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