Africa's lost medieval metropolis — once the wealthiest city on the Indian Ocean
Kilwa Kisiwani is a small island off the southern Tanzanian coast that was, between the 13th and 16th centuries, the greatest trading port in sub-Saharan Africa. Ibn Battuta called it one of the most beautiful cities in the world when he visited in 1331. Gold from Great Zimbabwe reached the coast here, where it was exchanged for Chinese porcelain, Persian glass, and Indian cloth — the ruins of the Great Mosque and the Husuni Kubwa palace complex, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, are the physical remains of this vanished cosmopolitan empire.
Kilwa reached its commercial peak under the Mahdali Sultanate (1300–1513), controlling the gold trade from Zimbabwe through its position as the southernmost deep-water port on the Swahili Coast. The Portuguese destroyed its independent power in 1505. The Great Mosque (largely 14th century) is the largest pre-colonial mosque in sub-Saharan Africa, and Husuni Kubwa — a palace with a swimming pool covering a hectare — was one of the most sophisticated buildings of medieval Africa. UNESCO inscribed both sites in 1981.