The 

ruins of Gedi are a historical and archaeological site near the Indian Ocean coast of eastern Kenya.
The site is adjacent to the town of Gedi (also known as Gede) in the Kilifi District and within the 
Arabuko-Sokoke Forest.
Gedi is one of many medieval Swahili-Arab coastal settlements that stretch from Mogadishu, Somalia to the 
Zambezi River in Mozambique .There are 116 known Swahili sites stretching from southern Somalia to
Vumba Kuu at the Kenya-Tanzania border. Since the rediscovery of the Gedi ruins by colonialists in the
1920s, Gedi has been one of the most intensely excavated and studied of those sites, along with Shanga,
Manda, Ungwana, Kilwa, and the Comoros.
 Architecture
The Gedi ruins make up a site consisting of 45 acres (18 hectares) that
lies in the primeval Arabuko-Sokoke Forest. The ancient town at Gedi is
divided by two walls, with an outer wall enclosing 45 acres (18
hectares)and an inner wall enclosing 18 acres (7.3 hectares).
Within the inner wall there are two mosques, a palace or Sheikh's
house, four large houses, several clustered houses, and four large pillar
tombs comprising the urban core. The inner wall also encloses four
other houses and three other mosques.  Between the inner and outer
walls few stone structures have been identified with the exception of
two mosques.  Immediately beyond the outer wall there is one mosque
and several other unidentified structures
Walls
The inner and outer walls were constructed similarly with the outer wall measuring
nine feet high and 18 inches thick, which was also coated in plaster. The outer wall
is believed to have been constructed during the fifteenth century.  The construction
of the inner wall has been attributed to the Portuguese presence along the coast in
the sixteenth century, whilst the presence of gun ports has been used to infer that
the walls were not constructed earlier. However, the practicality of the walls as
defensive fortification is unclear, since according to Kirkman the walls and gates
surrounding the town have no significant strength, which seems to conform to a
proposal that the walls and the layout of buildings were used to maintain social
barriers. Although the inner wall has a more obvious defensive function and despite
the absence of gun ports and the questionable strength of the outer wall, it has
nonetheless been credited as being a fortification.