Kipepeo Guest House / about Lamu

	Lamu Unesco World Heritage since 2001	Land flag Kenya (Africa)
to increase the map, click on it	Lamu - an island in the Indian ocean before the East African coast of the republic Kenya - where not only Africa, but also Arabia and India left their mark. The Old Town of Lamu is one of few places on which about millennial, from a lot of influence melted, Swahili culture and her buildings have kept. No matter whether one comes by car or by airplane; for the 19 km to the Lamu Iceland you have to take one of the dhow ferries. The first you note when you ashore here, are no monuments, but the people. The Swahili, the coastal inhabitants, move certainly and without haste in the systematic crazy garden of the narrow lanes of Lamu-Town. And, nevertheless, the architect's plan of the 'stone city' is very regular, even not schematically built.
The city with about 30,000 inhabitants today has an almost one thousand-years of age history. Already in the 9-th century Arabian businessmen with the coastal inhabitants stepped in commercial relations. Many sat down on the East African coast and built up a distant trade net. Thus the prosperity came to Lamu - and the Islam. The 4-storied houses, stratified from coral ashlars, whose walls are smoothed with lime plaster, with nice inner courtyards and open rooms by which the wind circulate and which can reduce solar glow, testify from a sophisticated architecture. In the facades, windowless to the lane, you can see the famous high doors of Lamu, rich in ornament carved. Till this day some master craftsmen control the traditional piece art. The doors of the houses of the 'stone city' are more than one entrance, they become the symbol of the Swahilikultur rich in forms. In the narrow lanes in which itself the oncoming can hardly make way, the stranger meets black covered women which seem to him mysterious, because their face is veiled. The Swahilikultur was stamped by Islam and defines itself by the common faith. Several times during the day there resounds the prayer call about the city and his echo catches itself in the narrow lanes. Then you see the men in the ankle-long, white garments, visiting one of the 29 mosques of the city. The life rhytm carrying out traditionally and steadily of the people in this city exercises an irresistable charm.		Lamu-Town
		Dhow
		Typical lane in Lamu city

to increase the photo, click on it	Close Lamu, about the narrow Mkandi - channel away, lies Manda Island with its ruins of the old Suaheli city of Takwa which experienced from the 15-th to the 17-th century her period of bloom, before it was given up for unsettled reasons. The ruins apply more than 5 ha and contain a grave of 1681. All buildings and the mosque are aimed to the north in the direction of Mecca.