was inhabited from the eleventh century and located to the north of the walled city. The structure that is standing was constructed in the fourteenth century on top of two earlier mosques from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The mosque measures in length along its north-south orientation. Tombs The pillar tombs at Gedi, which consist of masonry based structures topped with a pillar or column, are part of an architectural style of the medieval Swahili Coastal settlements. A common feature on the pillar tombs at Gedi are decorative recessed panels. Although there are four large pillar tombs at Gedi, the "dated tomb," located within the inner wall, stands out from the rest since it has Arabic inscription on it with the date A.H. 802 (A.D. 1399). Houses The surviving residential buildings at Gedi are all located within the inner wall and are representative of the living conditions of the elite members of Gedi society, since the majority of the population lived in the mud thatched dwellings outside the city's core. The four largest houses include the House on the Wall, the House on the West Wall, the House of the Dhow, and the Large House. A cluster of smaller houses adjacent to the palace or Sheiks residence includes the House of the Chinese Cash, the House of the Porcelain Bowl, the House of the Cistern, the House of the Two Rooms, the House of the Paneled Walls, the House of the Scissors, the House of the Venetian Bead, the House of the Sunken Court, the House of the Cowries, the House of the Iron Lamp, the House of the Iron Box, and the House of the Well. Although the houses at Gedi vary in size, their number of rooms, and their layout, the basic house at the site is a three-room structure, which usually contained a forecourt and domestic court. With the three-room layout, there was usually a long main room with two storage and sleeping quarters towards the back of the house. One of the back rooms usually had a storage compartment near the roof with access through a trapdoor. Latrines, usually located toward the back of the main room, were also present in many of the houses, while wells were present in the courtyards of some of the houses. One of the oldest stone houses dates to the fourteenth century and has a long narrow sunken court, which