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About Mombasa Island
Position : Mombasa is at 4 Deg 3' latitude South of The Equator, 39 Deg
41' east longitude, about 451 km south of the Equator.
The oldest historical record of the East African Coast is an account of
a circumnavigation of Africa about the year 500 B.C. by Phoenician
sailors for the Pharaoh Necho of Egypt. Their ships must have called at
Mombasa.
Chief seaport of Kenya, capital of Coast
Province, on a bay of the Indian Ocean, just south of the equator. The
fast-growing city, which also serves as a port for northeastern Tanzania
and landlocked Uganda, includes Old Mombasa, located on a small offshore
island (16 sq km/6 sq mi), and a larger, more modern mainland
metropolitan area, which is connected to the island by causeway, bridge,
and ferries. Kilindini, a modern deepwater harbor on the western side of
the island, has extensive docks, shipyards, and sugar and petroleum
refineries. Old Mombasa Harbor, on the eastern side of the island,
handles mainly dhows and other small coastal trading vessels. Fort
Jesus, built by the Portuguese in the 1590s, is maintained as a museum.
Mombasa Polytechnic (1948) is in the city. Mombasa was founded about the
8th century by Arab traders. It was visited in the 1330s by the noted
Arab traveler Ibn Batuta and in 1498 by the Portuguese explorer Vasco da
Gama. Mombasa later changed hands several times before coming under the
control of the sultan of Zanzibar in 1840. It passed to the British in
1895 and was the capital of the British East Africa Protectorate until
1907. It was made the capital of the coastal Protectorate of Kenya in
1920, and in 1963 it became part of newly independent Kenya (which
includes the former protectorate and colony of Kenya). Mombasa has often
been a port of call for American naval vessels. Population (1984
estimate) 425,600.
Omani Arabs are reputed to have started settling at many places along
the coast in the 9th century A.D. However the oldest dated relics on
Mombasa Island are thought to be not earlier than the 15th century.
In 1832, the Sultan of Oman moved his capital to Zanzibar and the red
flag of Zanzibar continued to be flown over Fort Jesus until Kenya's
Independence in 1963. However, the Zanzibar possessions along the Kenya
coast were included in the British East Africa Protectorate declared in
1895 and were governed de facto as part of that territory, the
name of which was changed to Kenya in 1920. The Capital of British East
Africa was at Mombasa until it moved to Nairobi in 1904
The Tusks
The famous tusks, one of the most prestigious monuments in Kenya, were
constructed in 1953 by the council to commemorate a visit by Princess Margaret,
sister to the Queen of England.
Map of Mombasa Island
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