The Husuni Ndogo, a Swahili stone fortress in the medieval city of Kilwa, off the the coast of Tanzania. late 12th to early 13th century.

The Husuni Ndogo, a Swahili stone fortress in the medieval city of Kilwa, off the the coast of Tanzania. late 12th to early 13th century.  

Located on a hill overlooking the sea on the island of Kilwa Kisiwani, the Husuni Ndogo, or “little fort”, is a rectangular enclosure measuring 70m by 50m reinforced by polygonal bastions on all sides. The walls are 1.2 meters thick, surviving to a height of 2.5 meters with foundations 2 meters deep and buttresses all along the interior walls, built from lime mortar-bound coral-rag and cut stone detailing. There are remains of a series of poorly understood interior structures as well. 

According to the Kilwa Chronicle and archaeological investigations, the Husuni Ndogo was built by Sultan Sulayman al-Hassan b.  Daud (a.k.a. Suleiman Hassan), the 9th ruler of the Kilwa Sultanate. Suleiman Hassan was a conqueror who brought much of the Swahili Coast under his rule, including Zanzibar, Pemba and even Sofala in modern-day Mozambique, an important center for the trade in gold and ivory. The Husuni Ndogo is thought to have served as a palace and fortified caravanserai to secure this lucrative trade. It was also the site of iron-smelting activities and may have had other poorly understood functions as well.

The Husuni Ndogo was supplanted by the much larger, and much more famous, 14th century Husuni Kubwa, an unfortified palace situated across a small gully just west of the old fortress.