Kilwa

Island in Tanzania, on the coast of Mtwara region, approximately 250 km/155 mi south of Dar es Salaam. The main town on the island is Kilwa Kisiwani with the larger town of Kilwa Masoko on the mainland immediately adjacent to the north. The island was formerly known to the Portuguese as Quiloa and to the Arabs as Kiloab. Kilwa was an important Arab trading station, with a harbour and inland trading routes to Lake Malawi.

The town was founded by Prince Ali ibn-Hassan, a Persian, in 957, and many ruins show the former importance of the settlement. Ibn Battuta, writing in 1331, called Kilwa ‘the most nobly built city on earth’. Kilwa was captured by the Portuguese in 1505.