The Contribution of Mangroves to the Swahili Civilization: the Case of Swahili Architecture

This book is a product of the author's endevour to research on and contribute to the understanding of the Coastal Archaeology, particularly the Swahili Civilization. It explores a lot about the use of mangroves in the Swahili Architecture and brings on surface the knowledge rarely found in previous archaeological literature. The book adds to other bodies of knowledge our understanding on the role of organic material (for this case mangroves)in the reconstruction of past human histories. Moreover, the impact of mangrove use to environment is also discussed. The author provides in this book a fomulae that can be used to estimate the amount of mangrove poles that were used in construction of the swahili houses. It is obvious that readers will find this book not only of interest and intriguing but also a knowlge source to the understanding of Swahili architecture.