Kilifi Caves
Kilifi Caves (Panga Ya Saidi, Mawe Meru and Chasimba Caves) is part of the Tentative list of Kenya in order to qualify for inclusion in the World Heritage List.
The Kilifi Caves are three caves (Panga Ya Saidi, Mawe Meru and Chasimba Caves) known for their mortuary practices. The caves have been in use from 78,000 to 4,000 years ago.
Map of Kilifi Caves
Load mapThe coordinates shown for all tentative sites were produced as a community effort. They are not official and may change on inscription.
Community Reviews
Zoë Sheng
Chinese-Canadian - 18-Jan-24 -
I visited all three components although Mawe Meru appears to be just the black rocks on top of Chasimba Caves which is even marked so on the map. Also I don't see ANY cave. Maybe 70,000 years ago this was a cave system and has now been eroded to just have rocks. Both cave sites are taken care of by the local family (unofficially?) and they'll be happy to take you on a small tour. By tour it means you walk over sharp karst and maybe fall if you aren't careful - honestly this is so not recommended to visit. My advice is to save you some money (not that it cost a lot to tip them) and just take a picture of the wall rock as you drive past it. The locals didn't have anything particular to show that would be significant for previous human inhabitants and if anything was here it was probably taken away to safeguard anyway.
As it was a drive through due to the nearby WHS I didn't mind too much but definitely not worth your time.
Site Info
- Full Name
- Kilifi Caves (Panga Ya Saidi, Mawe Meru and Chasimba Caves)
- Country
- Kenya
- Added
- 2023
- Type
- Cultural
- Categories
- Archaeological site - Civilizations of Sub-Saharan Africa
- Link
- By ID
Site History
2023 Added to Tentative List
Site Links
Locations
The site has 3 locations