32-577: The Luigi Broglio Space Center ( BSC ) located near Malindi , Kenya , is an Italian Space Agency (ASI) Spaceport . It was named after its founder and Italian space pioneer Luigi Broglio . Developed in the 1960s through a partnership between the Sapienza University of Rome 's Aerospace Research Centre and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) , the BSC served as a spaceport for
64-614: A feasibility study to reactivate it for the Russian launcher START-1 , and given significant decreases in the cost of satellite launches in the 2020s may serve the space programs of several African nations as well. ( In March 2004, a delegation from ASI and a Russian delegation went to visit the Luigi Broglio Space Center in Malindi, Kenya, to verify the technical conditions of re-use of the launch site for use by Russian launchers of
96-528: A graveyard was built before 1542 when Francis Xavier visited the town. Many buildings of Swahili architecture survive, including the Juma Mosque. Malindi was refounded by Sultan Majid of Zanzibar in 1861 and until the end of 19th century served as a centre of the slave trade. A plan of the town in 1873 indicates the area of occupation by that time. In 1890, Malindi came under British administration and slave trade and slavery were abolished. This act led to
128-624: A mobile rigid platform located close to the equator. This station, composed of 3 oil platforms and two logistical support boats, was installed off the Kenya coast, close to the town of Malindi . The program schedule included three phases: The San Marco launch platform complex was in use from March 1964 to March 1988, with a total of 27 launches, primarily sounding rockets including the Nike Apache , Nike Tomahawk , Arcas and Black Brant launchers. Low payload weight orbital launches were also made, using
160-648: A municipal council with the following thirteen wards: Barani, Ganda/Mkaumoto, Gede , Gede North, Gede South, Kijiwetanga, Madunguni, Malimo, Malindi Central, Malindi North, Maweni, Shella, and Watamu Town . All of them are located within Malindi Constituency . The novel “MALI D’AFRICA” (by Sara Cardelli) describes an impossible love in Malindi. Most of the events in Andrei Gusev ’s novels Once in Malindi (2021) and Our Wild Sex in Malindi (2020) take place in Malindi, Watamu , or Lamu . The novels describe
192-507: A port city. In 1414, the town was visited by the fleet of the Chinese explorer Zheng He . Malindi's ruler sent a personal envoy with a giraffe as a present to China on that fleet. The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama met Malindi authorities in 1498 to sign a trade agreement and hire a guide for the voyage to India, when he erected a padrão known today as the Vasco da Gama Pillar . Vasco da Gama
224-805: A rest stop on the way to and from India, they were eagerly welcomed by the wazee who sought to use the Portuguese military might to establish themselves over their rivals in Mombasa. In 1500, King Dom Manuel I offered vassal status to Malindi. Malindi supported Portugal's successful efforts to conquer Kilwa and Mombasa in 1505. In 1502, the Portuguese established a factory in Malindi, which lasted till 1593. The decline of Kilwa and Mombasa led to Malindi's flourishing. Malindi grew as other Swahili, as well as Arab, Persian, and Indian, merchants, craftsmen, sailors, and labourers flocked to newly powerful city. Malindi remained
256-443: A significant decline in agricultural production. Outside agriculture there were few industries in Malindi at the beginning of the 20th century; among them were making mats and bags, crushing sesame seeds for oil and producing a Swahili drink called tembo. Malindi was officially made a town in 1903. Ten years later its population stood at around 1148 and included 843 Africans, 230 Arabs, 67 Asians and 8 Europeans. Malindi experienced
288-519: A trade boom between the end of the World War I and 1925, when a famine occurred. Exports to foreign ports grew to £26,000 by 1924. Europeans started to return to Malindi in the 1930s, buying land from Arabs. Some of them like Commander Lawford opened the first hotels, which became the foundation of the future tourist industry. During World War II , Malindi was one of only two towns in East Africa bombed by
320-661: Is the largest urban centre in Kilifi County . Tourism is the major industry in Malindi. Notable heritage sites include the Vasco da Gama Pillar , the Portuguese Chapel , the House of Columns and the Malindi Museum Heritage Complex . Malindi is served with a domestic airport and a highway between Mombasa and Lamu . The nearby Watamu town and Gedi Ruins (also known as Gede) are south of Malindi. The mouth of
352-923: The Gatamaiyo Forest as the Athi River and enters the Indian Ocean as the Galana River (also known as the Sabaki River ). The Athi River flows across the Kapote and Athi plains, through Athi River town, and then takes a northeast direction where it is met by the Nairobi River . Near Thika , the river forms the Fourteen Falls and turns south-south-east under the wooded slopes of the Yatta ridge , which shuts in its basin on
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#1732859055154384-399: The Portuguese colonisation of the region, the latter leading to the decline of the civilisation. The city of Malindi, founded around 850 AD, was in a somewhat more northerly location than the modern city, and appears to have been destroyed around 1000 AD. There are sparse signs of habitation for the next two centuries, then recovery and prosperity in the 1200s. The first written reference to
416-534: The Sabaki River lies in northern Malindi. The Watamu and Malindi Marine National Parks form a continuous protected coastal area south of Malindi. The area shows classic examples of Swahili architecture . The majority of Malindi's population is Muslim . Malindi is home to the Malindi Airport and the Broglio Space Center (the previous San Marco Equatorial Range ). Malindi developed as part of
448-428: The solid-propellant Scout rocket (in its B, D and G subvariants). The first satellite specifically for X-ray astronomy , Uhuru , was launched from San Marco on a Scout B rocket on 12 December 1970. The ground station is in use and continues to track ASI , ESA and NASA satellites, and Chinese crewed space missions. However, the two platforms fell into disrepair during the 1990s. Since then, ASI has conducted
480-460: The 11th century, the Swahili along the coast were acting as middlemen for Somali , Egyptian , Nubian , Arab , Persian , and Indian traders. They began building walled towns, coral houses, and elites converted to Islam, often speaking Arabic. The Malindi Kingdom appears to have been formed around the 9th century AD and to have grown powerful in the two centuries before Vasco da Gama ushered in
512-481: The East, most often Persia. Malindi's main source of prosperity was the export of ivory and rhino horns as well as exporting agricultural products such as coconuts, oranges, millet and rice. In the years before the arrival of the Portuguese, Malindi was a regional power but lagged significantly behind the two greatest states, Mombasa and Kilwa. When, in 1499, the Portuguese established a trading post in Malindi that served as
544-519: The Italians. This happened on 24 October 1940, and after this event allied troops were stationed in the town until the end of the war. After World War II Malindi began developing into a resort. Malindi has a tropical dry savanna climate ( Köppen climate classification As ). Malindi now falls under Kilifi County as per the administrative changes in the new constitution passed in August 2010. Malindi forms
576-581: The centre of Portuguese activity in eastern Africa until 1593, when the Portuguese moved their main base to Mombasa. This was through the help of the Segejus and the Sheikh of Malindi. As the major East African ally of Portugal along the Swahili Coast, Malindi supported Portugal's successful efforts to conquer Kilwa and Mombasa. The two Swahili city states often had feuds with each other as they fought for dominance over
608-429: The city. After the Portuguese departed the town gradually declined until it almost disappeared by the end of 17th century. An 1823 United Kingdom Admiralty chart of 'Melinda' declared that at that time there were 'no vestiges of the once splendid city of Melinda' apart from Vasco da Gama's Pillar . In 1845, Ludwig Krapf visited the town and found it overgrown by vegetation and uninhabited. A Portuguese chapel with
640-604: The east. Apart from the numerous small feeders of the upper river, the only other tributary is the Tsavo River , from the east side of the Kilimanjaro , which enters at about 3° S. It then turns east, and in its lower course is known as the Sabaki (or Galana) River, which traverses the sterile quartz -land of the outer plateau . The valley is low and flat, covered with forest and scrub, containing small lakes and backwaters connected to
672-479: The emerging Swahili civilisation in the 5th–10th centuries. Bantu -speaking farmers moved into the area, where they smelted iron, built timber and wattle houses thatched with palm leaves, spoke a local dialect of kiSwahili , and engaged in regional and sometimes long-distance trade. The resurgence of the Indian Ocean trade networks at the end of the first millennium led to larger settlements, increased long-distance trade, and greater social complexity. Beginning in
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#1732859055154704-462: The ground station is still in use for satellite communications, the BSC is not currently used as a launch site. The San Marco platform was a former oil platform, located to the north of Cape Ras Ngomeni on the coastal sublittoral of Kenya , at 2°56′18″S 40°12′45″E / 2.93833°S 40.21250°E / -2.93833; 40.21250 , close to the equator (which is an energetically favourable location for launches). Launches from
736-474: The launch of both Italian and international satellites (1967–1988). The center comprises a main offshore launch site, known as the San Marco platform , as well as two secondary control platforms and a communications ground station on the mainland. In 2003, a legislative decree handed management of the center to ASI , beginning in 2004, and the name changed from the previous San Marco Equatorial Range . While
768-656: The platform were controlled from the Santa Rita platform , a second former oil platform located southeast of the San Marco platform, and a smaller Santa Rita II housed the facility's radar. A ground station located on the cape forms the center's primary telemetry site. The Italian space research program began in 1959 with the creation of the CRA ( Centro Ricerche Aerospaziali ) at the University of Rome. Three years later, on 7 September 1962,
800-490: The present-day Malindi likely comes from Abu al-Fida (1273–1331), a Kurdish geographer and historian. He wrote that Malindi was situated to the south of the mouth of a river which began in a mountain hundreds of miles away. This mountain may be Mount Kenya , where the Galana River rises. Thus, Malindi has existed as a Swahili settlement since at least the 13th century. Once rivalled only by Mombasa for dominance in this part of East Africa, Malindi has traditionally been
832-614: The protagonists' (Russian writer Andy and his wife Jennifer, who was born in Kenya) lives in these towns in the 2010s. The song “Yasoi Malindi” was written by Yasoy Kala Kana about the town. Sabaki River The Athi-Galana-Sabaki River is the second longest river in Kenya (after the Tana River ). It has a total length of 390 kilometres (240 mi), and drains an area of 70,000 square kilometres (27,000 sq mi). The river rises in
864-657: The river during the rainy season. During the rainy season, the river rises as much as 10 metres (33 ft) in places, now strongly flowing with a turbid yellow colour; navigation is interrupted by the Lugard Falls , actually a series of rapids. Flowing east, it enters the Indian Ocean 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north of Malindi . The river flows through the Tsavo East National Park and attracts diverse wildlife, including hippopotamus and crocodiles . Famously, in
896-425: The ruling class or wazee was made up of the heads of the wealthiest patrician families. Similar to other Bantu-speaking peoples, these clan leaders elected a mwenye mui or chief who spoke on behalf of the patricians. The Portuguese mistakenly titled these individuals "Kings," misunderstanding the nature of Swahili political organisation. The wazee spoke both Swahili and Arabic, and claimed mythological origins from
928-459: The trade. In his military struggles against Mombasa, the Sheikh of Malindi allied with the Portuguese and Segeju to take over the city. In 1592, the Segeju occupied Mombasa, eventually surrendering it to the Sheikh of Malindi. The Sheikh then moved his court from Malindi to Mombasa and ruled from 1593 to 1630. During this time, he invited his allies, the Portuguese, to build a Garrison and they dominated
960-405: The type START-1. The result of the visit has been extremely positive and both parties have agreed on the feasibility of launching from the marine platform. ) Malindi Malindi is a town on Malindi Bay at the mouth of the Sabaki River , lying on the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya . It is 120 kilometres northeast of Mombasa . The population of Malindi was 119,859 as of the 2019 census. It
992-420: The university signed a memorandum of understanding with NASA to collaborate on a space research program named San Marco (St. Mark). The Italian launch team, trained by NASA, was to first launch a rocket from Wallops Island under NASA supervision and first launch successfully took off on 15 December 1964. The San Marco project was focused on the launching of scientific satellites by Scout launch vehicles from
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1024-544: Was given a warm reception from the Sultan of Malindi, which contrasted with the hostile reception he encountered in Mombasa . It is a popular tourist attraction for both local and international tourists. In 1498 Malindi was a prosperous town with a population between 5,000 and 10,000. The majority of the population was Muslim by this period, having converted largely between the 13th and 14th centuries. Like other Mediaeval Swahili towns,
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