The Manda Projects
The Manda Old Town Heritage Site is the ruins of one of the oldest trading settlements on the east coast of Africa, and was described as Kenya’s oldest town by Neville Chittick who conducted the earliest investigations into the site in the early 1960s. Thought to have been established in the 8th century, many of the ruins found there are over 1200 years old, and hold the stories of the early immigration of traders from Europe, the Middle East and Asia forming the foundations of Swahili culture as it exists today.
The ruins are situated within a parcel of land on Manda Island owned by the National Museums of Kenya (NMK). A public-private partnership between The Manda Projects, Manda Bay Lodge and National Museums of Kenya is currently in development. The goals of this project are to undertake remediation and mitigation work, under the guidance and supervision of NMK staff, to arrest the decline of the ruins to preserve this important historical and cultural heritage, to restore the grasslands to facilitate access and assessment of the site and provide much-needed grazing for the wildlife that remains on Manda, and develop a collaborative archaeology program with NMK, international and national university partners.
Manada Projects
Manda Bay Lodge
National Museum of Kenya
STATUS: Exploratory