MASERU

capital and only urban centre of Lesotho. It is on the left bank of the Caledon River near the border with Free State province, South Africa. In 1869 the chief of the Sotho (Basotho) nation, Mshweshwe I, founded the town near his mountain stronghold of Thaba Bosiu; few of the 19th-century buildings remain. Lesotho is linked with the South African railway system by a short line from Maseru to Marseilles on the BloemfonteinKwaZulu-Natal main line, thus providing an outlet for farm produce, trade, and the transport of labourers. Maseru, in turn, is linked by road and airstrips to other areas of mountainous Lesotho and by scheduled air service to Johannesburg. The National Assembly chamber buildings and the High Court buildings of Lesotho are there, as are Radio Lesotho, a technical school, and the Lesotho Agricultural College, founded in 1955. Roma, 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Maseru, is the site of the National University of Lesotho (established 1975). Pop. (1986) town, 98,017; (1995 est.) Maseru-Roma-Morija metropolitan area, 297,000.