Alex Colville

Lost cities in the sands

Exquisite palaces built of coral may now be buried forever in the desert. But their legends suggest that medieval Africa was far from being a dark continent

issue 24 November 2018

  • The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages

    François-Xavier Fauvelle, translated from the French by Troy Tice

    Princeton, pp. 264

The main attraction in the Kenyan port of Mombasa is Fort Jesus, a vast, ochre-coloured bastion overlooking the Indian Ocean. Dominating a dusty skyline of palm trees, minarets and tower blocks, it was erected during the opening cannonade of European empire. In 1505 a Portuguese armada sacked and torched Mombasa, shortly after its ‘discovery’ by Vasco da Gama.

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