On the North coast of Mombasa towards the town of Malindi lays one of the most historic ruins found in Mombasa, called the Gedi Ruins. It lies 16 km south of Malindi Town and approximately 90 km North East of Mombasa.
Gedi is one of Kenya’s great unknown treasures, a wonderful lost city lying in the depths of the great Arabuko Sokoke Forest. It is also a place of great mystery, an archaeological puzzle that continues to engender debate among historians. Despite the size and complexity of this large (at least 45 acre) settlement, it is never mentioned in any historic writings or local recorded history. The nearby Portuguese settlement at Malindi seems to have had no contact with, or even known of the existence of Gedi.
To this day, despite extensive research and exploration, nobody is really sure what happened to the town of Gedi and its peoples. This once great civilization was a powerful and complex Swahili settlement with a population of over 2500, built during the 13th century. The ruins of Gedi include many houses, mansions, mosques and elaborate tombs and cemeteries. Gedi was in many ways, a very advanced city with streets, running water and flushing toilets. Correcting the assumption that Africa was far behind the rest of the world before colonialism, Gedi was a cosmopolitan urban setting, and archeologists have found Ming Chinese vases, Venetian glass as well as other artifacts from all over the world. This potpourri of history is clear evidence that the Muslim inhabitants of the coastal Kenyan town traded heavily with cultures outside their own, and developed an incredible world that has now been deeply decomposed by tropical forests.
The town has all the appearances of a trading outpost, yet its position, deep in a forest and away from the sea makes it an unlikely trading centre. This leaves unanswered questions; what was Gedi trading, and with whom? But the greatest of all of Gedi’s mysteries was its sudden and inexplicable desertion in the 17th century. The entire town was suddenly abandoned by all of its residents, leaving it to ruination in the forest. There are no signs of battle, plague, disturbance or any cause for this sudden desertion.
One current theory is that the town was threatened by the approach of the Galla, an inland tribe known to be outwardly hostile at that time, and that the towns people fled ahead of their arrival.
The ghostly ruins of Gedi lay within the forest that has overgrown and consumed the town. They had become a part of local folklore, regarded as a sinister lair of malevolent spirits, until archaeologists began to uncover the site in the 20th century. It was gazetted in 1948. Excavation has occurred since 1948, and the entire area is protected as a national park in Kenya.
It was first visited by Sir John Kirk, a British resident of Zanzibar in 1884. Over forty years later in 1927, it was gazetted as a Historical Monument. Two years later in 1929, it was declared a “protected monument” and in the late thirties, the Public Works Department carried out work on preservation of its crumbling walls. Gede was soon after the repairs in 1948 declared a National park and an Archaeologist appointed as warden. Thus, the first archaeological work at Gede began under the direction of James Kirkman followed by the first publication of the site. In 1969, Gede’s administration was taken over by the Museum Trustees.
Currently the Monument is under the care of the National Museums of Gede Ruins and in addition to being a very important archaeological site; Gede indigenous forest is a sacred site for traditional rituals and sacrifices for the surrounding community. There is an excellent museum and well trained guides on hand to take visitors through the ruins