Cristo Rei stands on the headland of Cape Fatucama, east of the centre, a 27-metre bronze Christ on a globe that mirrors Rio's Christ the Redeemer in pose if not in scale. The climb up is 590 steps cut into the hillside, lined with Stations of the Cross, and takes about twenty minutes at a steady pace.
From the top you look back along the bay to the city and out to the strait towards Atauro Island. Locals come up on Sunday afternoons in family groups; the best time for a visitor is just before sunset, when the heat eases and the light turns the water gold. There is a small unpatrolled beach below the headland, on the far side, called Areia Branca — quieter than the city beach and good for a swim after the climb down.