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Mombasa Island: Beach
Holidays Mombasa.
The coral island of Mombasa, which measures just over 14 sq km
less than five square miles -is a busy, frenetic place, packed
with a variety of things to see and do, with many of the
sights clustered around Mwembe Tayari, Mombasa's old market
place, now a bus station. Here is the war memorial built to
honour the Kenyans who died in the First World War.
Nearby is a mosque and further on along Mwembe Tayari Road is
a Hindu Temple. Continue along this road and you come to
Mombasa's central railway station, built in 1932. It is from
here you can catch the overnight train to Nairobi. This
railway was nick-named. The Lunatic Line' at the time of its
inception. Dinner and breakfast is provided on the train and a
bar service is available. Tourists, however, usually make the
journey between the coast and the Kenyan capital by plane.
Mombasa's biggest market is the Makupa Market off Mwembe
Tayari, a colourful place featuring a wide range of produce
that is well worth a visit.
Mombasa Island is a good place pick up souvenirs, especially
cheap fabrics, like 'kanga' wraparounds. |
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The ramparts slope down to the old slave harbour, from which
spices as well as slaves were shipped. From the fort you can
enter the Old Town, where the narrow lanes are lined with
traditional Arab wooden-balconied houses. Here are more than
20 mosques, the oldest of which is the Mandhry Mosque, founded
in 1570. Other impressive religious buildings are the Jain
Temple, with dome topped by a spire of gold and doors of solid
silver, and the Shiva Temple, guarded by statues of lions and
the Hindu God Ganesh, with its elephant head. |
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Throughout its tumultuous history, the Fort changed hands no
less than nine times between the Portuguese and Omani Arabs.
When Kenya was made a British Colony, the British government
used the Fort as a prison; this was the case until 1958, when
the government declared Fort Jesus an historical monument
under the National Parks, and later under the National Museum
of Kenya. Excavation work was carried out between 1958 and
1962, when the Fort opened its doors to the public as a
museum.
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