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Mombasa

For other uses, see Mombasa (disambiguation).

Mombasa
City and city county
Clockwise from top: Mombasa Island, Rooftop restaurant near KPLC offices, a roundabout at Moi Avenue, Sunset in the CBD.
Nicknames: 
  • Mwambao
  • Arab Town
  • The blue and white city
  • Second City
  • Gateway of East Africa
  • The old capital
Mombasa is located in Kenya
Mombasa
Mombasa
Location within Kenya
Mombasa is located in Horn of Africa
Mombasa
Mombasa
Location within the Horn of Africa
Mombasa is located in Africa
Mombasa
Mombasa
Location within Africa
Coordinates: 4°03′S 39°40′E / 4.050°S 39.667°E / -4.050; 39.667
Country Kenya
CountyMombasa County
Founded900 A.D.
Government
 • TypeCounty Government
 • BodyCounty Assembly
 • GovernorAbdulsamad Shariff Nassir
Area
 • Land219.9 km2 (84.9 sq mi)
Elevation
50 m (160 ft)
Population
 (2019)[1]
 • Density5,495/km2 (14,230/sq mi)
 • Urban
1,208,333
GDP (PPP)
 • TotalIncrease $13.132 billion (2nd)(2022)[2]
 • Per CapitaIncrease $10,227 (2022) (2nd)
GDP (NOMINAL)
 • TotalIncrease $4.822 billion (2022) (2nd)
 • Per CapitaIncrease $3,755 (2022) (2nd)
Time zoneUTC+3 (EAT)
Area code020
Websitemombasa.go.ke

Mombasa (/mɒmˈbæsə/ mom-BASS-ə; also US: /-ˈbɑːsə/ -⁠BAH-sə) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital status in 1907. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is known as "the white and blue city" in Kenya.[citation needed] It is the country's oldest (c. 900 A.D.) and second-largest city[3] after Nairobi, with a population of about 1,208,333 people according to the 2019 census.[1]

Mombasa's location on the Indian Ocean made it a historical trading centre,[4] and it has been controlled by many countries because of its strategic location. Kenyan school history books place the founding of Mombasa as 900 A.D.[5] It must have been already a prosperous trading town in the 12th century, as the Arab geographer al-Idrisi mentions it in 1151. It came under the exploration and later control of the Omani Empire around the 14th and 15th centuries. The oldest stone mosque in Mombasa, Mnara, was built c. 1300. The Mandhry Mosque, built in 1570, has a minaret that contains a regionally specific ogee arch.

In the late pre-colonial period, it was the metropolis of a plantation society, which became dependent on slave labour based around the ivory trade. Throughout the early modern period, Mombasa was a key node in the complex and far reaching Indian Ocean trading networks. Its key exports then were ivory, millet, sesamum and coconuts.

Today, Mombasa is a tourism-based town, home to one of the state houses, with an extra-large port and an international airport.

  1. ^ a b 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census Volume I: Population by County and Sub-County. Archived 13 November 2019 at the Wayback Machine; retrieved 7 November 2019.
  2. ^ "GCP". Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  3. ^ The World Factbook. Archived 7 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Cia.gov. Retrieved on 17 August 2013.
  4. ^ History of Mombasa | Mombasa, Kenya. Archived 21 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine. Mombasainfo.com. Retrieved on 17 August 2013.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference :2 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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