Ancient Ruins

Recently I had the opportunity to visit one of Kenya's national parks: the ancient Gedi ruins.



The entryway to the great Mosque

 The word "Gedi" means "precious."  The Swahili city was founded in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century, reached its peak in the mid fifteenth century, and then was finally abandoned in the early seventeenth century.  The population is estimated to have been ~ 2500.  No one really knows why the city was abandonned: disease, emigration, war....   The area is thought to have been very prosperous though, based on the amount of trade that was happening in the area at that time.  Also artifacts that have been found at the site suggest the Gedis traded with people from all over the world: beads from Venice, coins and a Ming vase from China, an iron lamp from India and scissors from Spain.



Entrace to the Palace



Gedi had a mosque, a palace, a cemetary for priests four wives and many houses. These houses had bath tubs inside and squat toilets.  Huge, deep wells supplied water to the community. The material used to construct the buildings and the city walls was made from coral reef from the nearby ocean.



Remanents of the wall that surrounded the city




Our guide said these trees are infected by some sort of fungus - giving them this strange and eerie appearance.



Crumbling houses