The Gedi mosques are a group of religious structures located in the heart of ancient Swahili city of Gedi, also known as Gede. Gedi was likely occupied between the 11th and 17th centuries CE, and was a typical Swahili "stone town" located on the East African coast in modern Kenya. The ruins of Gedi include a walled town and its suburbs. The main built area consists of houses, a palace, and some mosques. Two of these mosques have been identified as "Great Mosques" by Pradines (2003). Open areas in the settlement have been identified as zones where structures constructed of perishable materials were located. Like most of the surviving structures at Gedi, the mosques were constructed using coral limestone extracted from the Indian Ocean and cemented with mud-lime mortar. Foundations tend to be about a foot deep and not much wider than the walls they support. The mosques and other structures were built along a planned grid. The mosques are associated with wells and washing facilities for use before (and after?) worship. The mosques are not associated with minarets, breaking with common practice elsewhere in the Muslim world. This could be due to Ibadi influence in the region. Gedi's mosques were planned with anterooms flanking a central chamber. The roof of the mosques were likely supported by wood beams and square stone pillars. The largest mosque at Gedi has three entrances and three rows of square stone pillars. Breaking with the generally aniconic decoration of Swahili mosques, this mosque has a relief of a spear placed next to a shield on its spandrel above one of its entrances. The east entrance's architrave is decorated with a geometric herringbone pattern. All the mosques of Gedi have a decorated mihrab on their north walls, the direction of Mecca. The second largest mosque of the city seems to be older than its larger counterpart. This second mosque was constructed in the 12th century before being reconstructed and expanded in the 13th and 14th centuries. This second mosque measure 26m in length, north to ...