WHV HISTORIC TOWN OF GEDI

BACKGROUND OF THE HISTORIC TOWN OF GEDI
The historic town of Gedi occupied a very large area and had two walls around it. The inner wall was where the rich lived. The outer wall enclosed 18 hectares which also included farm and plantation land with quite a number of mud and wattle houses for the middle class. Outside the walls is where the peasants lived. My organization Agape Centre of Hope (ACoH) Kenya has chosen this particular world heritage because of the following reasons, Gedi historic town is a gazette National Monument since 1927; it is managed by the National Museums of Kenya. This was the first site to be excavated in East Africa and has remained the most intact of the preserved Swahili historic towns. It has been published extensively compared to other sites. The historic town presents us with evidence of the development of an architectural complex consisting of mosques, palaces, and living quarters that were protected with two stone walls around it making it a unique landscape at this period in history. Currently the Monument is under the care of the National Museums of Kenya and in addition to being a very important archaeological site; Gede indigenous forest is a sacred site for traditional rituals and sacrifices for the surrounding community.
Due to its importance Gede was later re-gazette as Gede National Monument on 12/06/70, Gazette Notice Number 1688.Today, the ruins of Gedi bear testimony to the life and culture of people of 13th Century Africa. It provides an insight into the economy, architecture, and ways of life, social structure and other aspects of ancient African civilizations. The historic town is an outstanding testimony to the social and economic structure of the inhabitants of Gedi around the 13th century. Gedi was one of the most prosperous Swahili city states before its decline in the 18th Century.