Go on the history trail in Gede, Kenya

I noted with interest that in your January 1 feature on Kenya (Taking the plunge) you mentioned Gede, "a 12th-century Arab trading town filled with palaces and mosques". I am intrigued and would like to know more about this place with a view to visiting with my family this year.

Gede is indeed a fascinating place. Now a ruin that is open to the public, the first thing you see when you enter the site is a tomb with an epitaph inscribed in Arabic showing the date AH802 (1399AD). The town is believed to have had a population of between 2,500 and 3,000 people during the height of its importance in the 15th century.

According to the National Museums of Kenya (www.museums.or.ke), Gede is thought to be a Galla or Ormo word meaning "precious", although its original name may have been Kilimani. The site covers 18 hectares and sits on a ridge near the coast. The area is now overgrown, but it was once visible from the sea. It was a self-sufficient Swahili trading town, surrounded by a town wall enclosing the great mosque, several smaller mosques, a number of tombs, a palace and some private houses. The buildings were built mainly of coral stones, chalk lime, earth and mangrove poles, with coconut leaves used as thatching. Today, the only buildings still left are those of coral stone.

The town's prosperity derived from the trade between Gede's Muslim inhabitants and countries all over the world. Excavations of the site have revealed iron lamps from India, vases from China, scissors from Spain and beads from Italy. The site's museum has a decent collection of artefacts, including gold jewellery, recovered from the site. Various ruined buildings have been named after the objects found within them, hence there is the "house of the Chinese cash", "house of the porcelain bowl", "house of the Venetian bead", "house of the ivory box", "house of the iron lamp", "house of the scissors" and "house of the cowries".

The palace, which was occupied by the town's political or economic ruler, thought to be an Omani, is divided into four sections, including a reception court where the sultan used to be received by his ministers, the men's court, the women's court, and a court for members of the public. The remains of the great mosque still feature a large well used for washing before prayers, the mihrab and small niches used for lighting. One house features a bathroom with a coral-tiled ceiling and a swimming pool.

The reason for the eventual decline of the town is unclear, but abandonment may have been caused by a shortage of water, civil war, disease or attack from pastoralists from Somalia and Ethiopia. For a professional guided tour of the site, ask for the museum's education officer, Ali Mwarora, when you arrive.

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Key facilities

Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
Premier League-standard football pitch
400m Olympic running track
NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
600-seat auditorium
Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
Specialist robotics and science laboratories
AR and VR-enabled learning centres
Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills

Navdeep Suri, India's Ambassador to the UAE

There has been a longstanding need from the Indian community to have a religious premises where they can practise their beliefs. Currently there is a very, very small temple in Bur Dubai and the community has outgrown this. So this will be a major temple and open to all denominations and a place should reflect India’s diversity.

It fits so well into the UAE’s own commitment to tolerance and pluralism and coming in the year of tolerance gives it that extra dimension.

What we will see on April 20 is the foundation ceremony and we expect a pretty broad cross section of the Indian community to be present, both from the UAE and abroad. The Hindu group that is building the temple will have their holiest leader attending – and we expect very senior representation from the leadership of the UAE.

When the designs were taken to the leadership, there were two clear options. There was a New Jersey model with a rectangular structure with the temple recessed inside so it was not too visible from the outside and another was the Neasden temple in London with the spires in its classical shape. And they said: look we said we wanted a temple so it should look like a temple. So this should be a classical style temple in all its glory.

It is beautifully located - 30 minutes outside of Abu Dhabi and barely 45 minutes to Dubai so it serves the needs of both communities.

This is going to be the big temple where I expect people to come from across the country at major festivals and occasions.

It is hugely important – it will take a couple of years to complete given the scale. It is going to be remarkable and will contribute something not just to the landscape in terms of visual architecture but also to the ethos. Here will be a real representation of UAE’s pluralism.