What sets these ruins, the remains of a city that existed between the 15th and 17th centuries, apart from other archaeological sites on the coast? Quiet. When you’re here and the light shatters in the trees, which have grown over some 100 ruined Mecca-aligned houses, you feel as if the ruins are speaking to you in the breeze. The ruins are only reachable during high tide; boat trips from Shela cost around KSh5000 for up to four people.
As you’re likely to have Takwa to yourself, it’s a good spot to enter an abandoned home and ponder the lives of whoever inhabited it. The seminal structure here is the Jamaa mosque, with its unusually tall pillar facade.
