Today, 'Kilwa on the Island' is a quiet fishing village, but in its heyday it was the centre of a vast trading network linking the old Shona kingdoms and the gold fields of Zimbabwe with Persia, India and China. While these days are now well in the past, the ruins of the settlement, together with those of nearby Songo Mnara, are among the most significant groups of Swahili buildings on the East African coast and a Unesco World Heritage site.
