Gedi/Gede
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No Medieval author mentions this town. It only gets a place here because one Medieval inscription has been found in the town.
Taken from: Wikipedia; Ruins of Gedi
The settlement of Gedi occurred long after the emergence of the earliest settlements along the Swahili Coast. The earliest evidence for occupation at Gedi is a grave marker that has been radiocarbon dated to between 1041 and 1278, placing the original settlement of the site sometime in the eleventh or early twelfth century.
Gedi's participation in trade is believed to be the contributing factor in its founding and its later development into a city supporting an estimated population of 2,500 inhabitants at its peak.
The adoption of Islam by the inhabitants in the twelfth century is marked by the presence of three superimposed mosques in the northern area the city, which were constructed during the twelfth to the fourteenth century. The style of architecture and the absence of minarets characteristic of all of Gedi's mosques has been used to suggest that the locals were influenced by the Ibadite denomination.
Gedi's population and prosperity peaked during the fifteenth and into the sixteenth century and declined in the late-sixteenth and abandoned in the seventeenth century.
The Gedi ruins make up a site consisting of 45 acres (18 hectares). The ancient town at Gedi is divided by two walls, with an outer wall (15th century) enclosing 45 acres (18 hectares) and an inner wall (16th century) enclosing 18 acres (7.3 hectares). The inner and outer walls were both measuring nine feet high and 18 inches thick, and coated in plaster.
Within the inner wall there are two mosques, a palace or Sheikh's house, four large houses, several clustered houses, and four large pillar tombs comprising the urban core. The inner wall also encloses four other houses and three other mosques. Between the inner and outer walls few stone structures have been identified with the exception of two mosques. Immediately beyond the outer wall there is one mosque and several other unidentified structures.
Great Mosque XV-XVI
The mosque traditionally known as the Great Mosque is a rectangular building located within the inner wall, which was built during the fifteenth century. The second Great Mosque resided in an older portion of the city, which was inhabited from the eleventh century and located to the north of the walled city. The structure that is standing was constructed in the fourteenth century on top of two earlier mosques from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
Gedi's structures appear to be formally arranged in accordance with streets laid out in a grid pattern. Additionally the site contained sumps to collect storm water and lavatories in many of its primary buildings.
The majority of Gedi's structures were domestic residences made of thatched-roofed mud buildings concentrated between the outer and inner walls; however, the only buildings that survived to the present were constructed using coral stones extracted from the Indian Ocean. Although several of the buildings predate the fourteenth century, coral became a more common construction material for important structures and elite residences during that time period. All of the buildings at Gedi are single-story structures.
The pillar tombs at Gedi, which consist of masonry-based structures topped with a pillar or column, are part of an architectural style of the medieval Swahili Coastal settlements. A common feature on the pillar tombs at Gedi are decorative recessed panels. Although there are four large pillar tombs at Gedi, the "dated tomb," located within the inner wall, stands out from the rest since it has Arabic inscription on it with the date A.H. 802 (A.D. 1399).
The tomb of the dated Inscription.
It is speculated that cowrie shells may have been the principal currency at Gedi. Cowrie shells have been recovered in the store rooms of the houses and found in greater abundance than struck coins, represented by only two coins of Chinese origin. No East-African coins were found. The use of cowries as currency is supported by their historical use as tender in various parts of Africa, and Kirkman estimated the exchange rate of cowrie shells to the gold dinar to be 400,000 to 1.