The resort town is best known for the Vasco da Gama Pillar, a bell-shaped monument built by the Portuguese in 1498. Da Gama was a Portuguese explorer and navigator, the first person to sail directly from Europe to India. Mr Haji Mohamed, the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) Malindi curator, says Vasco da Gama Pillar, which is topped by a cross made of Lisbon stone, was rebuilt in the 16th Century after it was brought down. CHAPELNorth of the Vasco da Gamma Pillar on Silversand Road lies a quaint makuti-thatched Portuguese Chapel built by Vasco da Gama in 1498 on his epic voyage to India via Malindi. “The Portuguese Chapel compound contains graves of two sailors buried there in 1542 by St Francis Xavier, who retraced Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India,” Mr Mohamed says.

Source: Daily Nation May 01, 2019 21:56 UTC