Jumba la Mtwana, Gedi and Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve
Jumba la Mtwana, Gedi and Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve in Kilifi County : Jumba la Mtwana is a historic ruins located in Kilifi County on the coastal region of Kenya. It is one of the tourist safari tour most visited places in Kilifi, it is just 15 km from the town of Mombasa. It is found North of Mombasa and 300 Metres and approximately 200 metres inland from the Mombasa- Malindi Road. The ruins are managed and under the care of the National Museums of Kenya.
Jumba la Mtwana is a ruins surrounded by a nice ambience , trees in a quiet and tranquil environment. It was once a well organised settlement that showcase a well planned settlement and a thriving population. The name Jumba la Mtwana is a swahili word which means “the large house of the slave”. Jumba la Mtwana consists of an area with four mosques, a tomb and about four houses that can be currently recognised. The houses were made and the following were included; The House of the kitchen, The House of Cylinder, The House of the Many pools, three phases and the Great Mosque. The numerous mosques found in this area show that the people here were Muslims.
There are no proper historical records that show when the town existed but ceramic evidence show that the town existed around fourteenth century. This dating is based on white porcelain and a few shreds of early blue and other Chinese wares.
The strategic choice of this site was due to the availability of fresh water, the exposure to the South East and North East breezes which ensured the area and the people have a cool and safe from the external attacks from the sea since there is no harbour this ensured that the vessels had no anchor on the Indian Ocean shores .
The excavation and the clearance of the ruins were first done by James Kirkman. He made dating of the buildings , consolidated the buildings which were about to collapse and researched on the period of its occupation. Jumba la Mtwana was ten years later Gazetted on 4th June 1982 with the Gazette notice number 1515 which described it as a National monument.
Gede Ruins
This is a historical and archaeological site which is located in Kilifi County on the Kenyan coast. It was designated as a World Heritage Site On July 29, 2024. The area is in the Kilifi District and inside the Arabuko-Sokoke Forest close to the town of Gedi, also known as Gede. Gedi is one of the old Swahili coastal communities that stretch from Barawa, Somalia, to the Zambezi River in Mozambique. In this region there are 116 recognised Swahili sites, ranging from southern Somalia to Vumba Kuu near the Kenya-Tanzania border. Since colonialists rediscovered the ruins at Gedi in the 1920s, it has been one of the sites most extensively excavated and studied, along with Shanga, Manda, Ungwana, Kilwa, and the Comoros.
The historic Arabuko-Sokoke Forest is home to the 45 acres (18 hectares) of the Gedi ruins. The ancient town of Gedi is divided by two walls; the inner wall is 18 acres (7.3 hectares) in size, and the outside wall is 45 acres (18 hectares). The inner wall encloses the urban core, which is made up of two mosques, a palace or sheikh’s residence, four magnificent residences, a number of clustered buildings, and four massive pillar tombs. The inner wall encloses four more residences and three more mosques. Very few stone structures have been found between the inner and outer walls, with the exception of two mosques. Just beyond the outer wall are a few unknown buildings and one mosque.
Gedi has a well-established infrastructure in addition to being split by the inner and outer walls, which formed an urban core occupied by the site’s most important buildings and regions of occupation between and outside of the outer wall. Gedi’s architectural arrangements seem to follow a strict grid layout for the streets. In addition, several of the site’s main buildings had restrooms and sump pumps for collecting storm water. Most of the buildings at Gedi were domestic dwellings with thatched roofs, which were grouped between the outside and inner walls. The few buildings that have survived to this day were composed of coral stones that were taken from the Indian Ocean.
Throughout the fourteenth century, coral gained popularity as a building material for both important structures and luxurious residences, even if some of the structures date earlier. All of the buildings at Gedi are one-story structures. The walls and other coral constructions were constructed using similar methods and lime mortar; the majority of the foundations were filled with stones and only extended a foot or so below the surface. When foundations were employed, they were often no more expansive than the wall they held up. There are many instances of non-utilitarian design elements. The tombs and mosques have carved or inlaid porcelain spandrels and architraves, while the building doors have pointed archways with square frames.
Arabuko-Sokoke Forest Reserve
The Kenya Wildlife Service protects the Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve, a national forest reserve situated 110 km north of Mombasa on Kenya’s coast in Kilifi County. It has a 6 km2 area and was founded in 1990.Among the last great tropical forests to envelop a significant portion of East Africa is the Arabuko Sokoke Reserve. Half of the National Park is located outside the Forest Reserve, while the other half is located inside it. There is currently no signage indicating the start or finish of the National Park because the outer portion is entirely populated by nearby cities.
One of Kenya’s best and most well-protected forests, the Forest Reserve is jointly managed by the Kenya Forest Service, Kenya Wildlife Service, National Museums of Kenya, and Kenya Forest Research Institute. The forest was gazetted in the 1960s after being initially preserved as a Crown Forest in 1943. The local population’s greed for land is endangering the forest. Together with Kenya Wildlife Service, conservation agencies and people are trying to strengthen links with nearby communities and make sure that the forest’s neighbours benefit from increasing tourism.
