KILWA:
There are actually three Kilwas - the oldest, Kilwa Kisiwani (Kilwa on the island), lies on a small island two kilometres offshore. Here are the ruins of the medieval city of Kilwa, once thought to be the site of King Solomon's mines. Kilwa Kivinje (Kilwa of the Censuarina Trees) was a major 19th century slave trading centre, while Kilwa Masoko (Kilwa of the market) is a regional headquarters. The Kilwa area is of great historical interest and great scenic beauty. The Kilwas were at their height during the 12th century and continued until the 1800s, ending with the abolition of the slave trade. Power shifted and soon all that remained of the Kilwa's former glory were the fabulous ruins along the coastline.

Kilwa Kivinje was the terminus of the southern caravan route from Lake Nyasa . Over 20,000 slaves were exported from here annually during the 1860s . It was also the site of the Germans' southern administrative headquarters. With the end of the Arab time at the end of the 19th century, the German colonial government built a fort and extended the town. From German times one can still find a Market Hall, the big Fort with a canon from the 1st World war, and two pillars one for the tribal dead of the Maji Maji War fought between the local tribes of Southern Tanzania and the German Colonial government and the other for two German traders also killed during the same Maji Maji War.

A colourful market is held daily on the square at Kilwa Masoko. Men in white robes and women in black buibuis gather under the mango trees to barter fresh produce and a variety of goods.

Kilwa Kisiwani is famous for spectacular ruins, the finest and most intact collection of Islamic architecture south of the Sahara. Its position in the Indian Ocean is just less than three miles off the shore of Tanzania, so it can be seen from the mainland. Kilwa's closeness to the mainland but the isolation of being an island gave this site an active role to play in world events from 800c.e. to the present. These ruins, together with the stone town ruins on Songa Mnara Island, a few kilometres to the south as well as the ancient oblong houses of uninhabited Sanje ya Kati, make this area the historical nucleus of the south. Small fishing villages are scattered along the coast, unchanged by the progress of the rest of the country. The main buildings on Kilwa are the Great Mosque and the Great House, the Small Domed Mosque, the Jangwam Mosque, the palace of Husuni Kubwa and the nearby Husuni Ndogo, the Makutani palace and the Gereza fort. Kilwa Kisiwani was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1981.

The Great Mosque is a large complex structure dating from several periods. The building consists of two main parts, a small northern part divided into sixteen bays and a larger southern extension divided into thirty bays. The earliest phase evident at the mosque is dated to the tenth century although little survives of this above foundation level. The earliest standing area of the mosque is the northern part which dates to the eleventh or tenth century and was modified at the beginning of the thirteenth. Adjacent to the Great Mosque on the south side is the Great House which mostly dates to the same period as the latest phase of the mosque (i.e. eighteenth century). The Great House actually consists of three connected residential units each with a sunken central courtyard.

To the south-west of the Great Mosque is the Small Domed Mosque which together with the Jangwani Mosque are the only two examples of a nine-domed mosque in this area. This building probably dates from the mid-fifteenth century (it is built on an earlier structure) and contains an arrangement of vaults and domes similar to the later phase of the Great Mosque. The other nine-domed mosque is of approximately the same date and is known as the Jangwani Mosque; it is located to the south of the Small Domed Mosque.

To the east of the main group of buildings are the remains known as Husuni Kubwa (large Husuni) and Husuni Ndogo (small Husuni). The term Husuni derives from the Arabic term husn meaning fortified enclosure or fortress. Husuni Kubwa is located on a coastal headland overlooking the Indian Ocean. It seems to date mostly from the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century and may well have never been completed. The complex consists of three main elements, the gateway or monumental entrance, the large south court and a complex of four courtyards which form the core of the palace. By contrast Husuni Kubwa is a severe-looking building which fits the name Husuni (fort). It consists of a rectangular structure aligned north-south and measuring over 70 m long by more than 50 m wide. Thirteen evenly spaced, solid, semi-circular bastions protect the outside of the wall with one rectangular tower on the west side.

The other two important buildings on Kilwa island are also defensive structures although they seem to date mostly to the eighteenth century. The largest of these is the Makutani palace which was the residence of the sultan in the eighteenth century. The Gereza or fort is located between the Makutani palace and the Great Mosque. It consists of a roughly square enclosure with two towers at opposite corners.

There are also important ruins on nearby islands including Songo Mnara, Sanje Majoma and Sanje ya Kate.

The earliest of these sites is Sanje ya Kate, an island to the south of Kilwa where there are ruins covering an area of 400 acres, including houses and a mosque. The mosque is of an early type with a mihrab niche contained in the thickness of the wall rather than projecting out of the north wall as is usual in later East African mosques. Excavations have shown that the settlement was abandoned before 1200 and most of the ruins date to the tenth century or even earlier.

To the east of Sanje ya Kate is the larger island of Songo Mnara which contains extensive ruins on its northern tip. The remains date to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and consist of thirty-three houses and a palace complex, as well as five mosques contained within a defensive enclosure wall. The remains at Songo Mnara are informative as they are one of the few places in East Africa where pre-eighteenth-century houses survive in any numbers. The houses have a standardized design with a monumental entrance approached by a flight of steps leading via an anteroom into a sunken courtyard, to the south of which are the main living quarters of the house.