Tanzanian Holiday in Kilwa - visit Kilwa Hotel

If you are planning on taking a Tanzania Safari why not plan on visiting Kilwa and see the ruins of a thriving sultanate from around 960AD and how it all came apart with foreign invasion and the slave trade.

Location and Size

To visit the island of Kilwa while on your Tanzania Safari, you will find Kilwa located 2km off the southeast coast of Tanzania. The distance from south of Dar es Salaam is about 300km.   It is close to the mainland on a large island enclosed within the Kilwa Bay. Kilwa was once a prosperous city ruled by a Sultanate with its beginnings dating from around 960-1000 AD.  The Sultanate’s rule of Kilwa extended from the south at Cape Correntes to Malindi in the north. Having broken the hold that Mogadishu had on the gold trade by the 13th century, it became a powerful city in the region by the 14th century. The opulence of the ruling classes is seen in the ruins of their large houses some several stories high. Unique to the architecture were the ornately carved doors, mosques and tombs that were the hallmark of the Swahili craftsmen who worked with wood, metal and stone. Their crockery was the finest porcelain from China. 

Destruction took place when the Portuguese arrived in 1498 and took control of the gold trade, spices, textiles and ivory, forcing the Sultans to part with tributes to the King of Portugal. The first to be attacked in 1503 was Zanzibar; two years later Kilwa and Mombasa came under attack and homes were devastated and looted. Succeeding invasions added to the breakdown and a slave trade flourished.  

Special Features

There was a period of powerful political and intellectual revolution between the times of the world wars for people in Africa. The Europeans tried to develop a successful colonial administration with a period of consolidation. However, the urban people in Africa started to demand more say in the government. New relations and movements came to be in force to make their voices heard. But the political pressure caused by World War One had no sooner gathered momentum than the Second World War was on track adding more chaos to the situation.