Well-preserved doorway and a small niche at the Palace, ruins of the walled city of Gedi, South of Malindi, Kenya

"Along the coast of East Africa are the town walls, mosques, houses and tombs of the Arab colonial settlements that were at their height in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries of the Christian era. In 1948 excavations were begun at Gedi (Gede). It stands on a coral spur dominating the country to south and east, and cover an area of about 45 acres. It is surrounded by a town wall enclosing a Great Mosque, seven smaller mosques, a number of tombs, a Palace and a large number of private houses. The city was founded in the thirteenth, but was largely rebuilt in the fifteenth century. In the early seventeenth century it was abandoned for ever as a result of the southward movement of the Galla people who drove the Arabs from most of their mainland settlements. Well-preserved doorways with dressed stone arch and jambs, made from heads of Porites coral cut to shape. The method of joining the two sides of the arch with two blocks facing each other is characteristic of the early coastal architecture." [Kirkman J., 1963: Gedi; The Palace. Humanities Press, N.Y.]. This photograph was taken when Eliot Elisofon was on assignment for American Broadcasting Company and traveled to Africa from early December 1966 to early February 1967.