Physical description and climate
The Lamu Archipelago is a small group of island situated on Kenya's northern coast line, near Somalia. It is made up of Lamu, Manda, Pate and Kiwayu Islands. Lamu Town is the headquarters of Lamu District, one of the six districts of Kenya's Coastal Province, which borders the Indian Ocean to the east, the Tana River District to the south-west, the Garissa District to the north and the Republic of Somalia to the north-east.
Temperatures range from 23 to 30 degrees celsius throughout the year. The hottest months are form December to April, while the coolest are from May to July. There are also long rains from mid-April to the end of June.
Commerce brought the East African coast into contact with distant peoples and cultures as early as two thousand years ago. The earliest known historical records – the 1st Century AD Ptolemy's Geography – talk of the coast, its inhabitants, and the trade. Arab merchants began to settle permanently between the 9th and 12th centuries, bringing with them a new religion, Islam. They referred to the people they found there by various names, including ‘Swahili', which meant ‘people from the coast'. Over the years, the traders intermarried with the local people and some Swahili's trace their origins to the Arab world.
The Old Town of Lamu is first mentioned by the Arab writer/traveller, Abu al Mahasini, who met a 'Qadhi' (Muslim Judge) from Lamu when visiting Meca in 1441. Lamu flourished as an independent city-state and remained a thriving seaport through the turbulent Portuguese invasions, its Omani domination during the 17th century and battles with the neighbouring islands of Pate and Manda. Under Omani protection and with a slave based economy, Lamu remained prosperous for over two hundred years until the 19th century. It was during this period that Lamu's inhabitants built most of the traditional coral stone houses and mosques that still stand today, using coral stone and mangrove timber from the archipelago, and employing skilled craftsmen from India.