Ruins of Gedi

Gedi is an abandoned Swahili city in a remnant of coastal forest a little inland from the Kenyan shore. It belonged to a network of trade across the Indian Ocean linking African coastal centres with Persia and beyond, and its mosques, palace, houses, pillar tombs and water system are built of coral rag, coral and earth mortar and wood. The earliest evidence of settlement is a grave marker radiocarbon-dated to between 1041 and 1278.

In the 15th century an outer wall enclosed about 45 acres, and at its peak the town had an estimated 2,500 inhabitants. Its prosperity peaked in the 15th and 16th centuries; it then declined and was abandoned by the middle of the 17th century. The Portuguese presence, a falling water table and a Wazimba raid along the coast in 1589 are among the factors put forward.

Gedi was made a historic monument in 1927 and declared a protected monument in 1929, after looters began removing the Chinese porcelain set into its walls as decoration. In 1948 it became a national park with the surrounding forest, and James Kirkman excavated it from 1948 to 1958, uncovering the Great Mosque in 1954 and the palace in 1963. It was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2024.