The 15th century Swahili town of Songo Mnara (Tanzania) had six mosques-an unusual quantity for a town of only 7 hectares and a population of 500-1000 people. Large-scale archaeological investigations of two previously unstudied mosques and a detailed survey of the remaining four structures have suggested a complex pattern of Islamic practice in the town, including a dynamic relationship between mosques and burials, an emerging sense of social difference within the town, and the active signalling of Islamic faith to visitors through the construction of monuments intended to be seen on approach to the town. We commend a holistic approach in which mosques are studied not as isolated structures but as part of a wider urban landscape.

First phase: The building’s main entrance is located on a rectangular platform that is 9.3 x 5.75 meters in size and has five steps to the south. There are three steps on each of the other sides. The structure is built of coral, but the steps have sandstone slabs covering their upper surfaces. The prayer room is rectangular (4.45 x 3.0/3.25m) with side-engaged columns and a qibla of 355 degrees. The mihrab is no longer there, but the frame architrave’s pilasters and some coral carvings, including a faceted column and a portion of a capital, are still discernible.

In the second stage, the exterior walls on the east, north, and west sides were rebuilt and given a masonry skim. It is odd that in the second phase of the building, it was not oriented to the previous structure, generating a new external qibla of 00 degrees. Perhaps this was done to realign the mosque to face Mecca in the proper direction.