Malindi Things to Do

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Unfortunatelly, there excist no written documents about Gedi and everything about this sights is pretty much unknown and mysteruous. Since there are remains of an big mosque the place was definately inhabited by the people who originally could have been Arabs or Indians.
There are remains of an big palace to, which occupies around 900 square meters. The walls are built of random rumble and lime mortar and have a width of 30-60 cm.
Roofs of the houses were flat, slightly inclined for drainage and usually surrounding by a parapet with opening and spouts for run off of rainwater.
Who knows what has happened with this unknown civilisation.

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Gedi is the only historic sights of a type I have visit in all of Kenya, in fact was surprised not to found many more. It is situated in approach to Malindi town, somwhere in the mainland and is impressive collection of ruined palaces, mosques and houses. In the 13th century Gedi was a bustling city, by the 19th century it had been abandoned. Whilst the reason for this abandonment is not entirely clear it is thought that attacks by local surrounding tribes were behind its downfall.
The ruins were uncovered in the 1920s by the archaelogist Loiui Leakey.

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Its worth taking a stroll along the beach to the Vasco de Gama pillar on the south side of the main bay in malindi. When I was there it looked like the pillar had recently been given a coat of white paint. To reach the pillar itself there is a main entrance on the road and in recent years it seems you now have to pay a charge where as once you could wander up to the pillar kwa bure.

At low tide when these photos were taken it is possible to walk through a gap in the rocky peninsula that the pillar stands on to the beach to the south, which has much clearer water than the main bay which tends to become red with all the top soil that has run down the Gallana river.

I was amazed by the talented disabled craftsmen/women at the Bombolulu workshop. They produce these beautiful handcraft jewellery, handprinted textiles, wood carvings and leather crafts, atleast something to take home with you. Still at the Bombolulu workshop are 8 different cultural traditional homesteads that entertains its guest throught the day everyday.

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visit the Gedi ruins and finish by interacting with the locals from the nearby villages for traditional dance entertainment and i assure you when you leave the place,you will have acquired a wealth of knowledge. you can combine a visit to Gedi with a trip to Kipepeo butterfly farm next door.

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The Malindi Marine National Park

Honestly this is the best place for diving and snorkelling, if you havent been here while in Mombasa then you havent seen nothing yet! Malindi marine Park and Reserve is endowed with magnificent resources such as fringing reefs, coral gardens in the lagoons, sea grass beds, mangroves, mudflats, high fish diversity, marine mammals (e.g. dolphins), Turtles and Shorebirds. The main biotopes of Malindi Marine Park include fringing and patch reefs distributed on the seaward edge of barracuda channels

The Park and Reserve has features such as being easily accessible by road and air, hosting rich and relatively unaffected marine biodiversity, beautiful beach and warm water safe for swimming among other factors to achieve the objectives outlined above.

The ancient ruins of Gede (also called Gedi) is a nice place to kill some hours. Here you'll find lots of monkeys, but most important the old Arab-African town of Gede. The ruins is considered one of the largest archaeological sites for studying an ancient Swahili town and among the few places maintained and conserved within a national park. The ruins are still used for traditional rituals. You'll walk among mosques, tombs and royal toilets, and you'll discover traces of the early slave trade. Around the village you'll find some 50 tree species and globally threatened birds. There's also a museum on site, but boring compared to the large outdoor site (which must also be considered a muesum).

In the courtyard of the Juma'a Mosque you can see the remainings of the old mosque: some scattered old stones and parts of walls, a few simple graves and.. a pillar grave. This one is really beautiful - and ornated with some fine examples of stone carvings. It's really a lot more interesting than the mosque itself. However it's not quite allowed to walk up to the ruins (the grassy patch is a Muslim cemetery), so you'll have to take your photos from the distance