Arab domination was curtailed by the Portuguese in the sixteenth century. The Portuguese built the fort on the coast here to protect their trading interests in spices, cotton, coffee and slaves.
The Omani Arabs threw out the Portuguese in the eighteenth century and they in turn were replaced by British colonial rule at the end of the nineteenth century.
The vast majority of the inhabitants are Muslim and mosques form some of the most distinctive architecture. The Mandhry Mosque, said to be the oldest in Mombasa, built by the Arabs in the sixteenth century, has an unusual obelisk minaret. Some research (Lighthouses of Kenya) indicates that this could originally have been a beacon, one of many along the coast. Or maybe the mosque came first and the Portuguese used it as a beacon!
The journey back was rather eventful. At Mombasa airport our first attempt at take-off was aborted as we were going down the runway with complete instrument failure - a bit scary! Still, we had a fine view of Mount Kilimanjaro and the famous snows on its peak when we did finally get airborne.
