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Leo Hempstone · CC0
Landmark Africa trade

Mombasa

900 CE – still standing

Key Swahili coast trading port for gold, ivory, and spices

See it on the timeline

Wikipedia

The opening of the article, and a way into the rest of it without leaving the site.

Mombasa on Wikipedia.

Read the article

Who held this ground

Borders from dated snapshots, up to a century apart; precision varies.

Reconstruction

  1. Before it was built (3000 BCE–800 CE)
  2. Bantu (900 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  3. Islamic city-states (1000 CE–1600 CE) Border precision: Approximate
  4. No border recorded here in this snapshot (1650 CE–1700 CE)
  5. Zanzibar (1715 CE–1815 CE) Border precision: Defined
  6. Sultanate of Zanzibar (1880 CE–1900 CE) Border precision: Defined
  7. British East Africa (1914 CE) Border precision: Defined
  8. Kenya (1920 CE–2026 CE) Border precision: Defined
Border precision
  • Defined
  • Approximate

Elsewhere in Africa at the time

Records whose own span overlaps this one, found by the same test the canvas draws with. The bar under each card is where it sits inside this one.

See the whole view

Landmark · Africa

Volubilis

300 BCE – 1200 CE

Polity · Africa

Algeria

Founded 1900 CE · attested to 2026 CE

Conflict · Africa

Sand War (Algeria–Morocco)

1963 CE

Trade route · Africa

East African Coastal Trade

900 CE – 1505 CE

Landmark · Africa

Great Zimbabwe

1100 CE – still standing

Polity · Africa

Angola

Attested 1815 CE – 2026 CE

Conflict · Africa

Nigerian Civil War (Biafra)

1967 CE – 1970 CE

Trade route · Africa

Indian Ocean Trade

900 CE

Dated moments inside this span

Events the timeline places between 900 CE and 2026 CE.

900 CE Zanzibar 900 CE Kilwa Kisiwani 900 CE Sofala 900 CE Mogadishu 1075 CE Mapungubwe

And in the rest of the world

Records running through the same years, on the other side of the map.

Machu Picchu Landmark · Americas 1450 CE – still standing Tibet Polity · South Asia 1000 CE – 1960 CE Mesoamerican Trade Network Trade route · Americas 1200 BCE – 1521 CE World War I Conflict · Europe 1914 CE – 1918 CE Al-Razi Figure · Rayy / Baghdad / Persia 854 CE – 925 CE Taj Mahal Landmark · South Asia 1632 CE – still standing
Image credits 5 pictures from Wikimedia Commons
  • Mombasa Leo Hempstone · CC0
  • Volubilis Subhros · CC BY-SA 3.0
  • Flag of Algeria Original: National Liberation Front of Algeria Vector: SKopp · Public domain
  • Great Zimbabwe Andrew Moore from Johannesburg, South Africa · CC BY-SA 2.0
  • Flag of Angola Original: Henrique de Carvalho Santos Vector: SKopp · Public domain