The Island of War
Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya, lying on the Indian Ocean. It has a major port and an international airport. The island city is the centre of the coastal tourism industry. The original Arabic name is Manbasa ; in Swahili it is called Kisiwa Cha Mvita (or Mvita for short), which means "Island of War", due to the many changes in its ownership. The city is also the headquarters of Mombasa District which, like most other districts in Kenya, is named after its chief town.
This historic city has a population of 727,842 and is located on Mombasa Island, which is separated from the mainland by two creeks; Tudor Creek and Kilindini Harbour. The island is connected to the mainland to the north by the Nyali Bridge (leading to Nyali beach), to the south by the Likoni Ferry (leading to Diani Beach) and to the west by the Makupa Causeway, alongside which runs the Uganda Railway. The port serves both Kenya and countries of the interior, linking them to the Indian Ocean. The city is served by Moi International Airport.
Sightseeing attractions and city attractions include: museums, monuments, famous sites, historic sites, historic buildings and many other tourist attractions.
Mombasa travel
Kenya Airways flies to Mombasa seven times daily. Moi International Airport is a half hour's taxi ride from the centre of town. Taxis are available at the airport and a tariff should be presented to you before you agree the price.
Eating out
Swahili cuisine prevails on the coast, a glorious mix of spices, coconut, tamarind, fresh chopped herbs and chilli. Easily Mombasa's most famous restaurant, and undisputedly its best is The Tamarind Mombasa , which excels in fish (plenty of other choices) and runs The Tamarind Dhow , a Swahili sailing ship that tours the harbour for lunch and by night (supper and cocktails on board). For the best place to meet (for fast and reliable food) in the heart of town, try the Castle Royal Hotel . Mombasa abounds in excellent curry houses (but beware many of them do not serve alcohol): try the Shehnai Restaurant. Best ‘on-the-street food' includes fresh-cooked Samosas (vegetable or meat; available just about everywhere) and the cassava crisps fried in old oil drums outside Fort Jesus and best eaten hot with fresh lime juice and a sprinkling of chilli powder.
Shop
Mombasa is a city of contrasts. Digo Road and Moi Avenue provide the axis for the modern town, bristling with everything from fashion stores, modern supermarkets, cyber cafes and bookshops to sari sellers and long-time Indian tailoring establishments (where you can get something copied/made within a day for very little). Immediately adjacent to Mombasa's heart, Fort Jesus, is the Old Town, where the streets are almost too narrow for cars, everyone walks, and it's a real step back in time. Here every second shop is a ‘Curio Emporium' or ‘Gallery', and you can pick up everything from genuine Kenyan carvings, stunning soapstone, carved furniture and original art, to unashamed tourist trash, glitzy Indian trinkets and colourful kaftans. You can also liberate some great bead and leather sandals and choose from Kenya's finest selection of kikois (rectangles of printed cotton that serve as everything from wraps to throws). Bargaining is key to Kenyan shopping. Let the trader suggest a price; review the item and decide what YOU think it is worth, make a counter offer, and haggle from there on in.
Sightseeing
At the top of the hit list is the magnificent 16th century Fort Jesus, a Portuguese bastion that broods over the harbour and has a very bloody history indeed (buy the guide book as you enter). Next up is a walk around the Old Town, immediately adjacent to the Fort. Here you can shop, take in at least six magnificent mosques, wander around the Old Dhow Harbour (still full of trading dhows), dine on excellent street food and exit back on Digo Road, in the centre of the modern town. You may get lost, but there are plenty of willing guides. Also well worth doing is the Tamarind evening dhow trip around the harbour (inclusive of magnificent supper and cocktails), or an evening cultural stroll finished by dinner within the walls of Fort Jesus (which also hosts an excellent Son et Lumiere show nightly. Tel: Jahazi Marine Tel: 041 5485001-5.
Mombasa Old Town
Dating from the 13th century it's easy to be transported back in time when wandering around the Old won in Mombasa, which has similarities to Lamu and stone town in Zanzibar. The narrow winding streets are overhung by filigree timber balconies and houses have intricately carved wooden doors, a symbol of status for the merchant residents whom commissioned them. Alongside the more recent Indian and colonial styles of architecture. Within the Old Town there are more than 20 mosques. During the 1800s slaves were shipped from the harbour as well as spices and mangrove poles. The Old Town has protected status as a result of a 1985 conservation project.
Fort Jesus
This Portuguese fort, built in 1593 is a huge bastion with a key position overlooking the old port of Mombassa. One of he oldest European buildings in Africa, it is surrounded by a deep moat. Designed by Joao Batisto Cairato, to protect Portuguese interests in East Africa, it is considered one of the finest examples of 16-century Portuguese military architecture. During the ferocious battles between the Portuguese and the Omani Arabs between the 16th and 18th centuries, the fort changed hands nine times. Subsequently, when Kenya became a British protectorate, in 1895, the fort was turned into a prison and remained so until 1958. Thereafter it was declared a national monument and made into museum. The museum houses artifacts from other coastal historical sites and the shipwreck of the San Antoni de Tana which sank off Fort Jesus in 1697. In the evening the fort hosts a son et lumière show Men baring fire torches mark the entrance to the fort as visitors are given a presentation of the coasts turbulent history followed by dinner served in Portuguese attire.
Other places of interest include:
Mombasa Marine National Park and Resave
Bombolulu Workshops and Cultural Centre
The Baobab Adventure
Haller Park - a magnificent example of land reclamation by the Bamburi Cement Company named in order of Rene Haller who instigated the project over the past 30 years. Leafy oasis, game sanctuary, nature trail commercial fish farm - antelope, hippo, giant tortoise and Rothschild's giraffe, crocodile, snake park and palmetium. Bamburi Forest rails - picnicking BBQ Butterfly Pavilion.
Nguuni Wildlife Sanctuary, 5km from Haller Park reclaimed park Masai ostrich eland and oryx and bird life (260 species).
Mamba Village - crocodile farm with 10, 00 crocodiles, camel rides and horse riding.
Ngomongo villages - representation of ten of Kenya tribes illustrating traditional homesteads, dress and activities.
Jumba la Mtwan
2 km north of Mtwapa creek the remains of a 13th center Swahili settlement abandoned after a century's habitation ‘The large house of the Slave.
Mnarani Ruins
Just south of Kilifi creek the remains of a 15th century Swahili settlement including a magnificent pillar tomb and Friday mosque.
The town is mainly occupied by the Muslim Mijikenda/Swahili people. Over the centuries there have been many immigrants and traders who settled in Mombasa, particularly from Persia, the Middle East, Somalia and the Indian sub-continent, who came mainly as traders and skilled craftsmen. Even after four or five generations, their descendants continue to contribute highly to the economy of present day Mombasa and Kenya as a whole.
Traditional dress for the Swahili women is a brightly coloured, printed cotton sheet called a kanga, which may have inspirational slogans printed on it. Muslim women wear a covering known as a bui bui, that is traditionally black, along with a head covering called a hijaab, and sometimes wear a veil called a nikab, also known as the "ninja". Men wear a type of sarong, which is coloured in bright bands, called a "kikoi".
History
The founding of Mombasa is associated with two rulers: Mwana Mkisi (female) and Shehe Mvita. According to oral history and medieval commentaries (also based on oral history), Shehe Mvita superseded the dynasty of Mwana Mkisi and established his own town on Mombasa Island. Shehe Mvita is remembered as a Muslim of great learning and so is connected more directly with the present ideals of Swahili culture that people identify with Mombasa. The ancient history associated with Shehe Mvita and the founding of an urban settlement on Mombasa Island is still linked to present-day peoples living in Mombasa. The Thenashara Taifa (or Twelve Nations) Swahili lineages recount this ancient history today and are the keepers of local Swahili traditions. Even though today Mombasa is a very heterogeneous cultural mix, families associated with the Twelve Nations are still considered the original inhabitants of the city.
Most of the early information on Mombasa comes from Portuguese chroniclers writing in the sixteenth century. The famous Moroccan scholar and traveller Ibn Battuta did visit Mombasa in 1331 on his travels on the eastern coast of Africa and made some mention of the city, although he only stayed one night. He noted that the people of Mombasa were Shãfi'i Muslims, "a religious people, trustworthy and righteous. Their mosques are made of wood, expertly built."
The exact founding date of the city is unknown, but it has a long history. It must have been already a prosperous trading town in the 12th century, as the Arab geographer Al Idrisi mentions it in 1151. During the pre-modern period Mombasa was an important centre for the trade in spices, gold and ivory. Its trade links reached as far as India, China and oral historians today can still recall this period of local history. Throughout early modern period Mombasa was a key node in the complex and far reaching Indian Ocean trading networks, its key exports then were ivory, millet, sesamum and coconuts. In the late pre-colonial period (late nineteenth century) it was the metropolis of a plantation society, which became dependent on slave labour (sources contradict whether the city was ever an important place for exporting slaves) but ivory caravans remained a major source of economic prosperity.
The great Chinese fleet of Zheng He is supposed to have visited Mombasa around 1415.Vasco da Gama was the first known European to visit Mombasa, receiving a chilly reception in 1498. Two years later, the town was sacked by the Portuguese. In 1502 the sultanate became independent from Kilwa Kisiwani as Mvita (in Swahili) or Manbasa (Arabic). Portugal attacked the city again in 1528, and built Fort Jesus in 1593 in an attempt to colonise, from which time it was governed by a Captain-major. In 1638 it formally became a Portuguese colony (subordinated to Goa, as a stronghold on the route to Portuguese India).
In 1698, the town came under suzerainty of the Sultanate of Oman, but it became subordinate to Zanzibar, prompting regular local rebellions. Oman appointed three consecutive Governors (Wali in Arabic, Liwali in Swahili):
• 12 December 1698-December 1698 Imam Sa`if ibn Sultan
• December 1698-1728 Nasr ibn Abdallah al-Mazrui
• 1728-12 March 1728 Shaykh Rumba
Next, Mombasa returned to Portuguese rule by captains-major Álvaro Caetano de Melo Castro (12 March 1728-21 September 1729), then four new Omani Liwali till 1746, when the last of them made it independent again. From 9 February 1824 to 25 July 1826 there was a British protectorate over Mombasa, represented by Governors. Omani rule was restored in 1826; seven liwalis where appointed. On 24 June 1837 it was nominally annexed by sultan of Zanzibar and Muscat Sayyid Said Bin Sultan with the assistance of Shaikh Isa Bin Tarif with his tribe Original Utub Al Bin Ali. On 25 May 1887, its administration was relinquished to the British East Africa Association (see Kenya). The sultan formally presented the town in 1898 to the British. It soon became the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate and is the sea terminal of the Uganda Railway, which was started in 1896. Many workers were brought in from British India to build the railway, and the city's fortunes revived. On 1 July 1895 it became part of Britain's Kenya protectorate (the coastal strip nominally under Zanzibari sovereignty).
Geography and climate
Being a coastal town, Mombasa is characterized by a flat topography. The town of Mombasa is centered on Mombasa Island, but extends to the mainland. The island is separated from mainland by two creeks, Port Reitz in south and Tudor Creek in north. The town has a warm, tropical climate. Winter months are slightly warmer than summer. The amount of rainfall depends essentially on season. The rainiest months are April and May, while in January to February the rainfall is minimal.
Mombasa is the centre of coastal tourism in Kenya. Mombasa Island itself is not a main attraction, although many people visit Old Town and Fort Jesus. North of Mombasa Island are Nyali, Kenyatta, Bamburi and Shanzu beaches. South of the town there are Shelly, Tiwi and Diani beaches. Several luxury hotels exist on these beaches, while most of cheaper beach hotels are located farther away from the town.
There is no bridge between Mombasa Island and south coast, instead the distance is served by ferries from Kilindini and Mtongwe to Likoni in south coast.