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Mombasa is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. The town is known as the white and blue city in Kenya. It is the country's oldest (circa 900 AD) and second-largest city. (after the capital Nairobi), with a population of about 1,208,333 people according to the 2019 census. Its metropolitan region is the second-largest in the country and has a population of 3,528,940 people.
Mombasa's location on the Indian Ocean made it a historical trading center, 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. It must have been already a prosperous trading town in the 12th century, as the Arab geographer al-Idrisi mentions it in 1151. The oldest stone mosque in Mombasa, Mnara, was built in 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 labor based on 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.
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The Shimba Hills National Reserve is a small National Reserve in the former Coast Province of Kenya, 33 km from Mombasa and 15 km from the coast. The reserve is an area of coastal rainforest, woodland and grassland. It is an important area for plant biodiversity – over 50% of the 159 rare plants in Kenya are found in the Shimba Hills, including some endangered species of cycad and orchids. It is also a nationally important site for birds and butterflies. There are estimated to be approximately 700 elephants in the reserve. This population is unsustainably high – it causes significant damage to vegetation, threatening the endangered plant life. Conflict between humans and elephants has also reached critical levels. North of the reserve, the Mwaluganje Elephant Sanctuary has been established to provide a route for elephants to leave the park. The remainder of the park boundary is fenced to prevent the elephants from invading farmland. The Kenya Wildlife Service has plans to relocate up to 400 elephants from Shimba to Tsavo East National Park in 2005. Shimba Hills contains Kenya's only population of sable antelope. There are about 100 in the park.
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Haller Park is a nature park in Bamburi, Mombasa, on the Kenyan coast. It is the transformation of a quarry wasteland into an ecological area. Haller Park holds a variety of plant and animal species which serve as a recreation spot for tourists and locals. Up to March 2007 it held the attraction of Owen and Mzee – the friendship of a hippopotamus and a tortoise.
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Diani Beach is a major beach on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya. It is located 30 kilometres south of Mombasa, in Kwale County. It has been voted Africa's leading beach destination for the fifth time running since 2015.