The Historic Town and Archaeological Site of Gedi gained World Heritage status last year – this is the first review since. Known as the Gedi Ruins, they are quite a popular tourist attraction, probably because of their convenient location, almost right at the main road between Mombasa and Malindi along the Kenyan coast. I arrived at Gedi junction by matatu, and jumped on the back of a motorbike for the final 1.5 km to the ruins. Like at all other sites nowadays in Kenya, there’s some commotion at the entrance since they will only allow online payments, which are hard to manage as a foreigner. So there are middlemen lingering about who, for a small commission, will buy a ticket for you via their phones. The entrance fee for foreigners is 500 KSh (3.5 EUR), I think it is still the non-WHS rate (there’s no plaque yet either).

I dodged the guides and went on my way alone. Signage is poor, but that doesn’t really matter: just remember that there is an inner zone where all the monumental buildings are and an outer zone with mostly forest and a wall here and there. Together, they form two rings. Beforehand, I had read the Tripadvisor reviews, which almost without exception rave about guides feeding the resident Sykes’ monkeys bananas – fortunately, this practice seems to have been halted, there are “Do not feed the animals” signs and I only saw a few monkeys from afar.

The history of Gedi is well-researched – there’s a lot of info on the Wikipedia page (the ICOMOS evaluation isn’t so great). Essentially, it was a late medieval Swahili coastal trade town, but it lies 6km from the sea and is surrounded by forest. This location (and the fact that it was abandoned early) surely has contributed to the good state of conservation of the remains, which sets it apart from other Swahili coastal settlements. I have not been to Kilwa Kisiwani yet, so I can’t say how they compare. The evaluation also speaks highly of the distinct street layout, but I found it hard to see this. I was mostly climbing in and out of ruins, over low coral rock walls. With its forest setting, Gedi mostly resembles a small Mayan or Khmer site, with a central area where the main buildings, such as the palace and several mosques, were.

An interesting aspect in the research history of Gedi is the “stone architecture bias” – its concentration of stone buildings has been singled out as a type of urbanism, but in its time, they were surrounded by many more mud buildings where the common people lived. Among the standing monuments, a special mention must go out to the stone pillar tombs. This is a distinctive feature of Swahili Coast architecture. The main one here (pictured) resembles a chimney and has carved decorations. Due to its height, it can be seen from afar across the settlement, which was probably the point.