Gedi

Gedi stands inland from the East African coast, surrounded by forest. Two rings of walls enclose the remains of a prosperous Swahili town, with houses, mosques, tombs and a palace built of coral stone and lime. Wells and water channels supplied its inhabitants, while imported ceramics and other objects reveal ties to China, India, Persia and the Mediterranean.

Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries Gedi was one of the significant urban centres of the coast. Its merchants took part in an Indian Ocean network that linked the African interior and shore to distant markets. The town was eventually abandoned in the seventeenth century, leaving its streets and buildings within the forest. Its surviving layout reveals differences between the substantial buildings of the inner town and the more modest dwellings beyond them.

The later city of Kilifi lies here.