Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara

Gold from the African interior, pearls, Persian ceramics and Chinese porcelain all passed across the wharves of Kilwa, the island sultanate off present-day Tanzania whose merchants commanded much of the Indian Ocean trade between the 13th and 16th centuries. Coral-stone mosques and palaces on Kilwa Kisiwani and neighbouring Songo Mnara testify to a wealth that awed early European visitors. UNESCO inscribed the twin ruins in 1981.