are several examples of non-utilitarian design elements. Doorways for the buildings consist of square framed pointed archways, with tombs and mosques containing spandrels and architraves that have been carved or inlaid with porcelain. Walls The inner and outer walls were constructed similarly with the outer wall measuring nine feet high and 18 inches thick, which was also coated in plaster. The outer wall is believed to have been constructed during the fifteenth century. The construction of the inner wall has been attributed to the Portuguese presence along the coast in the sixteenth century, whilst the presence of gun ports has been used to infer that the walls were not constructed earlier. However, the practicality of the walls as defensive fortification is unclear, since according to Kirkman the walls and gates surrounding the town have no significant strength, which seems to conform to a proposal that the walls and the layout of buildings were used to maintain social barriers. Although the inner wall has a more obvious defensive function and despite the absence of gun ports and the questionable strength of the outer wall, it has nonetheless been credited as being a fortification. Mosques The mosques at Gedi contained wells and washing facilities, which would have been used for cleansing prior to worship. However, they were not constructed with minarets used for the call to prayer, which was more characteristic in other regions. Gedi's mosques were typically laid out with anterooms flanking the central room, which had a roof supported by wood beams resting on square stone pillars. The aisles created by the pillars obstructed the view of the mihrab, which were situated on the north walls in the direction of Mecca. At Gedi, two of the mosques have been dubbed "Great Mosques." The mosque traditionally known as the Great Mosque is a rectangular building located within the inner wall, which was built during the fifteenth century. The Great Mosque has three entrances and three rows of pillars in the central room supporting the roof. Above one of the entrances is a relief of a spear point flanked by a shield on its spandrel, while on the east entrance the architrave is engraved with a herringbone pattern. The structure also has one of the deepest foundations, with its 21 inch wide walls extending four feet into the subsoil. The second Great Mosque resided in an older portion of the city, which