Photo: Victor Ochieng (CC BY-SA 2.0)
A self-guided audio walk through Fort Jesus and the Old Town of Mombasa. It starts at the fort the Portuguese built between 1593 and 1596 on a spur of coral rock, besieged by Omani forces from 1696 to 1698 and later a British prison, then visits the Omani House, the museum in the old barracks and the two First World War naval guns at the gate. Out past Treasury Square, the walk takes in the Anglican Memorial Cathedral, built in a mosque-like style, the Holy Ghost Cathedral and, along Moi Avenue, the aluminium Tusks first put up in 1952, then returns by MacKinnon Market, built on the site of a former slave market. In the Old Town it passes the Basheikh Mosque, Leven House, once a base for anti-slavery operations and missionaries, and the Bohra Mosque, then goes down to the Old Port and its dhows, the Old Post Office of 1899 and the Mandhry Mosque, ending on Ndia Kuu, the old main street. The cruise terminal at Kilindini is several kilometres away inside a working port and is reached by taxi or the ship's own transport.
16 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 19 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 5 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Fort Jesus, Omani House, Fort Jesus Museum, The Koenigsberg Gun, Treasury Square.
ACK Mombasa Memorial Cathedral, Holy Ghost Cathedral, Mombasa Tusks, Mackinnon Market, Basheikh Mosque, Leven House, Bohra Mosque.
Old Port, Old Post Office, Mandhry Mosque, Ndia Kuu Street.
The Portuguese fort of 1593 to 1596, cut into coral rock, taken by Omani forces after the siege of 1696 to 1698.
A gun from the German cruiser SMS Königsberg, refitted on a field carriage for land fighting, beside the British Pegasus gun.
The Anglican cathedral of coral stone, built in a mosque-like style with a silver-white dome to fit a mainly Muslim town.
Four aluminium tusks over Moi Avenue, rebuilt in 1956 after a temporary arch of 1952, crossing to form the letter M.
A coral-stone house on the Mazrui family's site of about 1800, once a base for anti-slavery work, missionaries and explorers.
A mosque that tradition dates to Omani settlers around 1570, kept by the Mandhry family, with a rounded minaret.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 16 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 16 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Mombasa — Fort Jesus and the Old Town, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
16 narration points, including Fort Jesus, Omani House, Treasury Square, Mombasa Tusks and Leven House. That is about 19 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 16 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.