Bandar Kuri (around Morombe)
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Ibn Majid (1470) in his Hawiya is the only author to mention this place. Ibn Majid in his Hawija gives at 5 fingers for Nach: Haduda at 22.4°S Bandar Kuri at 21.7°S Rufati at 21.7°S.
Taken from: Taken from: Madagascar, Comores et Mascareignes à travers la Hawiya d'Ibn Magid (866 H. /1462). Par François VIRE et Jean-Claude HEBERT.
The greatest confusion reigns about this place name that Ibn Majid quotes several times with different heights of the Big Dipper. A bandar Kuri would be at five-fingers on the west coast of Madagascar, and Khoury places it on his map at Morondava. At a height of one finger, Ibn Majid locates a "bay of Kuri" (gubba Kuri) and which could correspond to the bay of Androka.
Seydi Ali Reis (d. 1562) in al-Muhit has the same places.
Note: I would like to put it opposite the Bazaruto islands (that is around Morombe) as they are also five-fingers. No intensive searches have been bone along the coast of this part of Madagascar. (See Robert E. Dewar and Henry T. Wright under). But 135km inland from Morombo and 35km further in Asambalahy important medieval sites were discovered where Islamic and Chinese wares arrived imported through a still undiscovered harbor on the western coast.
Taken from: The Rise of Trading Ports and Development of the Highlands. Philippe Beaujard.
The sites of Rezoky (thirteenth–fifteenth century) and Asambalahy (fourteenth–sixteenth century), reveal the arrival of Africans on the western Malagasy coast; these groups were herders and smiths, and practiced hunting. These sites had connections with trade in the Mozambique Channel, as shown by the discovery of ceramics from the Muslim world (Rezoky, and Asambalahy) and China (Rezoky).
Taken from: The Culture History of Madagascar by Robert E. Dewar and Henry T. Wright.
There are no published intensively surveyed areas along the west coast, but excavations at Rezoky and Asambalahy to the east of Morombe, 135 km inland, provide important data on site structure and economy (Vérin, 1971). We do, however, suggest revisions of the datings for these sites. At the former site, probably thirteenth-fifteenth centuries given the occurrence of late varieties of sgraffiato and Far Eastern green glaze, there are many local spherical jars with appliques and oblique incised lines, similar to ceramics of the fourteenth century Ambinanibe Phase of the southeast, and a few bowls with triangular impressions. At the latter site, dated to the fourteenth-sixteenth centuries by the occurrence of Far Eastern green-glazed bowl sherds, the local ceramics have jars with panels of incised vertical parallel lines and appliques and arrays of rectangular or oval punctates. Independent absolute dating of these sites is needed. Rezoky is larger, covering several hectares, with not only a few sherds of imported pottery, but also imported glass beads. Asambalahy covers about a hectare. Domestic cows dominate the faunal remains of both, with some bones of both lemurs and tenrecs. Rezoky also had the earliest bone of a domestic dog yet reported from Madagascar and possibly the giant Aepyornis. Both sites had much iron slag and a number of iron tools and sharpening stones, indicating local iron-working. Because the two sites are in different valleys, perhaps with different grazing potentials, and are from different time spans, perhaps when imported goods had varying availability, we cannot attribute the size and ceramic differences between the sites to social differences between their occupants. Intensive regional survey is needed to place these data in perspective.
Note: since Vérin in 1971 noted that no archaeological work was done on the coast, there was a Morombo Archaeological project from 2011 till at least 2019 but no results have been announced.