Mombasa - City of Kenya

  Is the capital of the homonym district and the capital of the Coast province and is the second major city of Kenya. Has about 700,000 inhabitants and is the center of the tourism industry on the coast. Over the centuries there have been many immigrants and traders who have settled here, they arrived from Persia, the Middle East, Somalia and the Indian sub-continent. The city is mainly occupied by the Swahili people and Muslims Mijikenda. .

  It is known the exact date of birth of the city, it had to be already a prosperous city in the twelfth century as it was mentioned in the 1151 by Arab geographer Al Idrisi. It was an important center for trade in spices, ivory, gold, millet and coconuts. At the end of the nineteenth century was the metropolis of companies that dependent on slave plantations. The first European who visited Mombasa was the explorer Vasco da Gama in 1498. The city was sacked by the Portuguese in 1500 and became an independent sultanate in 1502. It was attacked again by the Portuguese in 1528 and became its colony in 1638. It pass under the domination of the Oman Sultan in 1698 but subject to Zanzibar.

  From 1824 until 1826 was under the British protectorate, then returned to Oman. Since 1887 it's administration was by the British Eastern Association and the city become the capital of the British Eastern Protectorate in Africa and the maritime terminal of the railway Uganda. In 1895 became part of the British protectorate with the Kenyan coastal strip under the sovereignty of Zanzibar. Mombasa was part of the state of Zanzibar until 1963 when it was transferred to the new independent state of Kenya.