The Takwa settlement is situated on the south side of
Manda Island, in the
Lamu District in the coastal province of
Kenya. They are the ruins of a town which was abandoned around the 18th century.
The Takwa site can be easily reached from
Lamu
Lamu or Lamu Town is a small town on Lamu Island, which in turn is a part of the Lamu Archipelago in Kenya. Situated by road northeast of Mombasa that ends at Mokowe Jetty, from where the sea channel has to be crossed to reach Lamu Island. ...
town. The ruins were first excavated by James Kirkman in 1951. In 1972 the site was cleared again under the supervision of James de Vere Allen, the Curator of the Lamu Museum.
Takwa was never a large place. It was founded around 1500, and probably abandoned around 1700. Kirkman thought that it was perhaps a place where holy men or religious people retreated. The Great Mosque at Takwa is relatively well preserved. The other structure of importance is the Pillar Tomb, which has an inscription with the date of 1681–1682.
It is reported that when Takwa was abandoned, its inhabitants settled just across the bay at
Shela Shela may refer to:
* Shela (name), a human personal name closely related to "Shelah"
* "Shela" (song), a 1985 song by the American band Aerosmith
* Shela, Tibet, a village in the Tibet Autonomous Region of China
* the village of Shela on Lamu Is ...
on
Lamu Island. Twice a year the people of Shela come to the Pillar Tomb in Takwa to pray for rain.
[Martin, 1973, p. 27] The Takwa Ruins were designated a Kenyan National Monument in 1982.
Gallery
Image:TakwaBuilding.jpg, Takwa Ruins-Building
Image:TakwaWall.jpg, Takwa Ruins-Wall
Image:TakwaArch.jpg, Takwa Ruins-Mihrab
Mihrab ( ar, محراب, ', pl. ') is a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the ''qibla'', the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca towards which Muslims should face when praying. The wall in which a ''mihrab'' appears is thus the "qibla w ...
Image:Takwa_Ruins_Wudu_2011.JPG, Takwa Ruins Wudu
Image:Takwa_Ruins_Mosque_2011.JPG, Takwa Ruins Mosque wall
See also
*
Historic Swahili Settlements
*
Swahili architecture
Swahili architecture is a term used to designate a whole range of diverse building traditions practiced or once practiced along the eastern and southeastern coasts of Africa. Rather than simple derivatives of Islamic architecture from the Arabic ...
References
Bibliography
*Martin, Chryssee MacCasler Perry and Esmond Bradley Martin: ''Quest for the Past. An historical guide to the Lamu Archipelago.'' 1973.
Further reading
*Wilson, Thomas H.: ''Takwa: An Ancient Swahili Settlement of the Lamu Archipelago.'' Kenya Museum Society.
Swahili people
Swahili city-states
Swahili architecture
Archaeological sites in Kenya
Populated places in Coast Province
Former populated places in Kenya
Archaeological sites of Eastern Africa
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