Kilwa Kisiwani

Kilwa Kisiwani

Tanzania · Lindi

HarbourUnknownUNESCO · 1981
Approximate period800 CE — 1,900 CEMedieval and later periods; approximate date range See on the map ↓

In brief

The island port city was an important center connecting products from the African interior to Indian Ocean trade. Excavation and find records show trade connections with China and the Islamic world.

What was found?

  • 1Chinese celadons

    The ceramics found at Kilwa include celadon-glazed fragments produced at Longquan. They provide tangible evidence of Chinese goods reaching the East African coast.

  • 2Blue-and-white ceramic fragments

    Blue-and-white fragments are also recorded in the British Museum's assemblage of finds from Kilwa. They show the diversity of imported vessels that reached the city.

  • 3Ceramics from the Islamic world

    The same assemblage includes ceramic fragments associated with the Islamic world. Together with the Chinese examples, they document the port's connections with different production regions.

  • 4Husuni Kubwa Palace

    The palace remains include a large octagonal bathing pool. It is a principal example of monumental architecture built with coral stone and lime mortar.

  • 5Great Mosque

    Some parts of the mosque, roofed with domes and vaults, were decorated with embedded Chinese porcelains. This shows that imported vessels were also used in architectural decoration.

What does it point to?

Kilwa was a powerful Swahili port where vessels from China and the Islamic world became part of local urban life. The palace and mosque show how trade wealth was transformed into monumental buildings, while the porcelain decorations demonstrate that imported objects acquired different uses.

What did it teach us?

  1. Ceramic finds documented trade linking different shores of the Indian Ocean.
  2. The palace and mosque remains revealed the tradition of monumental construction in Swahili cities.
  3. It showed that Chinese porcelains were incorporated into architectural decoration alongside their use as vessels.

Images

Kilwa Kisiwa View
Khalidsalewa · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Record

Culture
Swahili; Kilwa Sultanate
Coordinates
-8.9578°, 39.5228°

Sources

  1. whc.unesco.org
  2. whc.unesco.org
  3. britishmuseum.org
  4. britishmuseum.org

Nearby excavations


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12.000

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