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Let's save the Vasco Da Gama pillar

A project to protect it, here a form to fill

03-05-2020 by Freddie del Curatolo

We had already raised the alarm some time ago, but now the situation is really heavy: Vasco Da Gama's pillar, which has always been the historical and iconographic symbol of the town of Malindi, risks collapsing under the constant and inclement blows of sea erosion that has already reduced the rocky space of the homonymous tip where the archaeological site of the National Museums of Kenya is located, a destination for tourism and guided tours from all over the world.
The "pillar" or padrao, according to the original Portuguese wording, was built by the famous navigator in 1498, after his landing in Malindi who welcomed him as a friend, also because of the Sultan's adversity in Mombasa, just put on fire by the Portuguese. Destroyed once already in 1700, it was moved from its original site and rebuilt by the English at the end of the 19th century.
Since then it is unquestionably the symbol of the city but the site where it was placed, on the southern edge of Malindi Bay, makes it the postcard of attraction of the tourist resort.
We have been on the site, verifying how the rocks are definitely yielding and how the ocean is ready to take the pillar away too. The Superintendent of Marine Archaeology of Kenya Caesar Bita, among others former Senior Curator of the National Museum of Malindi, is convinced that the only solution is to build a retaining wall to protect the pillar and create a stable and safer attraction area. We also met with the person in charge of the environmental impact of the National Museums of Kenya, Ali Mwachitu, who, while assuring us that a project to save the historic site is already underway, asked to forward to the tour operators and anyone who cares about Malindi and its icons, a form to be filled in in order to validate at government level the thesis that urgent action must be taken and approve the project as soon as possible, which must also take into account aesthetic aspects so as not to distort the image that one has always had, from the waterfront.
The invitation for all of you is to download the attached file, fill it in and send it to info@malindikenya.net.
 HERE THE FORM TO DOWNLOAD AND FILL

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TAGS: vasco da gama pillarsimbolo malindimalindi turismo

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