Gedi Ruins

Ed and I take a matatu to the dirt road leading to the Gedi ruins. On foot, we pass wooden stalls where women sell fruits and hair cuts. A dirty young man, obviously mentally imbalanced, seems to sing while crying and shuffling his feet in the middle of the dirt road. The ladies working the stalls on either side tend to ignore him. We near the gate to the Gedi ruins when a white vehicle pulls in front of us. Three Italians look up one road, then down the other, saying they're searching for mushrooms that have blossomed with the recent rains. They laugh good-naturedly when we pass them again near the ruins. Italians are numerous on the coast, as are Germans. They've been coming to Mombasa, Malindi and Lamu for years. I opt for a guide to show us around the ruins of this Swahili town. Otherwise, we're simply walking and looking at crumbling walls. Founded sometime in the late 13th or early 14th century, and occupied until the 17th century, Gedi has been well-excavated and preserved. Undisturbed until the 1920s, Gedi was overtaken by the surrounding forests and named a national monument in the late 40s. James Kirkman excavated the site over a 10-year period in the mid-1900s. Historians can only speculate about why the city was abandoned in the early 17th century. Perhaps invasions from inland cannabalistic tribes, from Somalians, from the Portuguese. Perhaps the water supply gave out. Kalama, our guide and a student on a two-month attachment from Tsavo University, has conducted a study on the well system at Gedi. He's determined the settlers built too many wells, draining the water table and driving the people away. Not sure how accurate his theory is, but being a Muslim town, Gedi residents did use a lot of water. Cleanliness is an essential element of Muslim culture and huge wells were dug outside each of the mosques in Gedi and smaller wells were dug at most of the homes. If anyone has an inclination to study archeology, they should hasten to the coast of Kenya. (Donnie McGuire, dear, sweet nephew, this means you!!) Kalama tells us an archaeologist is currently unearthing the Mosque of the Outer Wall, but it appears very little excavation has been completed. Leaves cover the site and everything is still at ground level (except for the massive strangling Ficus that has overtaken a portion of the outer wall). Very little digging and documentation have been done along the coast, yet this area is ripe for exploration. Establishing digging sites will also help preserve the coast's history, but preservation efforts seem to be too little and haphazardly undertaken. Dream Job Alert: Studying the cultures buried around Watamu, Gedi, the Tana River and the Lamu archipelago, including the Takwa ruins on Manda Island (just across from Lamu), another 16th century Swahili town mysteriously abandoned. When we visit the Takwa ruins and our guide, Mohammed, is showing us the mosque's water container, I'm amazed to see part of a blue and white porcelain bowl still embedded as decoration in the bottom of the container. Souvenir hunters and vandals have taken away many of the bowls inlaid at Gedi and Takwa, but here is a piece still intact! There's an old mosque in Lamu that leans and obviously requires restoration. Otherwise, it will ultimately fall. The locals don't seem to mind the dilapidation and eventual demise of their historic artifacts. Or they're simply too poor to do anything about it. Archaeologists, art restorers, lovers of architecture, run, fly, sail to Kenya's coast and help preserve her rich history! Gedi's main mosque also has a large holding container near its entrance. Muslims must clean their face, hands and feet before entering a mosque. Someone would draw water from the well (the diameter of the well is about 10 feet!) and pour it into a trough, where it would flow into the large container. Scooping the water from the large container, they clean themselves and allow the water to flow into a hole in the ground that connects back to the well. Lined with coral, the "pipe" purifies the water as it is funneled back to its source. Inside the mosque, built into the north wall, is the mihrab, once decorated with inlaid porcelain bowls, and showing the direction to Mecca. The mihrab has built-in acoustic qualities allowing ceremonial words projected into this niche to bounce back into the mosque. Men kneeling in the back could clearly hear. To the right of the mihrab is a minbar, or pulpit, of three steps. Kalama stands on the top step to demonstrate how the service was officiated. When I take his photograph, he tries to hide the Tommy Hilfiger logo on his t-shirt. Women have their own portion in the temple, a narrow room just outside the main gallery. The palace, supposed home of the ruler of Gedi, also served as the municipal center of town. Measuring more than 45 acres, the entire town was enclosed in a 9-foot wall. The excavated portion of Gedi, including the palace and 14 large homes, makes up the more prosperous area and was enclosed with an inner wall. This prosperous part of town faces north, toward Mecca, with the poorer houses, usually built of mug and wattle, located outside the inner wall and on the south side of town. The Palace is equipped with sophisticated toilets typical of lavatories found throughout Gedi. They consist of two small cubicles with a lower partition wall between them. In one is a pit with a square hole and a urinal channel. In the other, on an upper tier, is a washing bench with two cavities (to hold bowls), while a divided seat below is used as a bidet. Interesting items found during excavation give the homes and building their names. The homes have names such as House of the Scissors, House of the Porcelain Bowl, House of the Cistern, House of the Venetian Bead, and House of the Iron Lamp. These finds, especially the porcelain bowls, indicate residents of Gedi traded with people coming from Arabia, India and perhaps beyond. Luckily, many of the items are preserved in Gedi's on-site museum and in the museum at Fort Jesus in Mombasa. Even though Gedi exists and traded with other sea-faring cultures, there is no written record, in either Arabic or Swahili, that mentions the town. Some feel it was hidden so deeply in the forest, away from the coast, so that even the Portuguese, who ruled for more than a hundred years, never knew Gedi was there. Walking through the excavated town is extremely peaceful. Massive Baobab trees have sprung up everywhere, providing shade in the coastal heat and humidity. (Spongy pulp from the giant Baobab fruits are mixed with sugar and red food coloring to make "African Candy.") A tomb at the northern entrance of town is inscribed with the Arabic date of A.H. 802, which corresponds to 1399 A.D. on the Christian calendar. Several tombs on site have been excavated, revealing corpses, but Muslim law prohibits carbon dating tests. Luckily, having this dated tomb helps fix the time of Gedi.