The city of Gede is one of the most famous and mysterious settlements on the East coast of Africa. The ruins of Gede are located 16 kilometers south of the famous resort of Malindi. The mystery of the death of this city excites the imagination of many generations of archaeologists. To reach it was not easy, but after a long search for our expedition managed to find the ruins in the tropical thickets.
The city was built at the end of XIII century. According to one of the versions, it was founded by outcasts — immigrants, expelled by the authorities from Malindi. The Portuguese, Arabs and Swahili Gede clearly did not complain. At least, it has not been found in written sources to date. By the way, much later the name "Gedi", or rather "Gede", was given to the city by the belligerent nomadic tribes of Gala from Somalia, which captured it. In their language, the word "gede" meant "precious". According to legend, before their appearance the city was called "Kilimani"...
Gede was a fast-growing place. And by the middle of the 15th century, when the first Europeans began to appear in East Africa, it was already a busy shopping mall. However, at that time, the Europeans who appeared in Africa, mostly Portuguese, were interested not so much in trade with backward and wild, in their opinion, local tribes, as the opportunity to find a sea route from Europe to India. Therefore, they were in no hurry to explore the coast or move into the interior of the continent. They learned much later about the existence of Gede lost in the coastal jungle...
Archaeological findings suggest that it was a large city, at least by the standards of the XVI century. Excavations in Gedeh began in 1940. In the course of the excavations it was possible to find a lot of buildings: the city wall, gates and towers, residential houses, mosques and crypts, once a magnificent palace of the sultan, as well as a developed system of wells and swimming pools. Not a single 7 mosques were built here! The material for construction was volcanic rock and local corals.
In the city 35 wells were dug by hand! The most complicated water supply system was created: water flowing from one well to another was accumulated in special reservoirs. A public shower room was built for the townspeople in Gedeh...
The Sultan's palace occupied about a third of the city's area. The Sultan was rich and had 4 wives. For each of them separate apartments were built. In the palace of the sultan the servants dug a separate well, which was not communicated with the others for security reasons.
All this time in Gedeh there was a vigorous trade. Among the archaeological finds made here were gold and silver ornaments, coins, Chinese and Arabic porcelain, glass, dishes for storage and cooking.
In short, the city flourished. The wells were full of water, foreign speech was heard all around the world, goods from all over the world were changed for money, and it seemed that it would always be so. But paradise on earth could not last long... Once Gede was destroyed by a punitive expedition sent by Sultan Mombasa against Sultan Malindi. This happened after Malindi's troops, which included Gedeh's citizens, looted Mombasa in April 1529, killing most of the townspeople. Perhaps the punishers, having walked over 100 kilometers in the heat, did not reach Malindi or confused him with Gede. But anyway, instead of fighting the sultan Malindi, they took their anger out on Sultan Gede. Most of the city's population was destroyed. But that time people came back... But at the end of the XVI century, something much more terrible happened in the city. This made the population flee Gedeh in terror...
At that time, more than two and a half thousand people lived in the city. One day, they left their property of their own free will and left the city for good...
We still don't know what made them do it. According to one version, the most expensive thing in Africa is that water has left the wells, and the people of the city are dying of thirst. On the other hand, they were struck by leprosy or a previously unknown, incurable disease that appeared and disappeared suddenly. On the third — on the city fell eternal, terrible curse. Staying in it was tantamount to death...
The ruins that have survived to this day silently store one of the greatest mysteries of the African coast. And it seems that Gede's dark mystery will remain unsolved forever...