On a small island off the northern Kenya coast, a town has operated for over 600 years without a single motor vehicle on its streets. Lamu — the oldest continuously inhabited Swahili settlement in East Africa — moves at the pace of donkeys and the tide. David Burns walked its coral-stone lanes, carved-doorway facades, and waterfront where wooden dhow boats still tie up as they have for centuries, filming a candid lamu walking tour through a UNESCO World Heritage site that genuinely functions as a living town rather than a preserved exhibit.
About This Walking Tour
David Burns filmed this walk through Lamu Old Town’s maze of narrow lanes — many so tight that two people cannot pass side by side — capturing the particular textures of Swahili coastal architecture: whitewashed coral limestone walls, elaborately carved teak doorways, and interior courtyards visible through open gates. The video follows no prescribed tourist route. Instead it moves the way the town rewards movement — by turning corners, following sounds, and arriving unexpectedly at the waterfront or a courtyard mosque.
What the video shows is the ordinary life of a functioning community: schoolchildren, shopkeepers arranging goods, fishermen unloading catches at the harbour, donkeys bearing loads along lanes where cars have never fitted. There are 23 mosques within the Old Town’s boundaries — several dating to the 17th century — and the call to prayer structures the day audibly in every street. The Lamu Fort, built by the Omani rulers in the 1820s, anchors the waterfront end of the main lane.
Burns keeps the camera at walking height throughout, which gives the viewer a genuine street-level sense of scale: the compressed proportions of the alleys, the height of the carved doorways, and the occasional unexpected opening where the Indian Ocean suddenly appears at the end of a lane.
Highlights of Lamu
The Lamu waterfront is the social and commercial heart of the town. Traditional wooden dhows — some built in Lamu using techniques unchanged for centuries — moor alongside modern fishing boats. Small cafés with plastic chairs face the water, and fishermen hold their daily morning auction at the fish market behind the seafront. The Lamu Fort occupies a commanding position at the waterfront’s northern end and now houses the town’s community library.
The Old Town lanes themselves are the defining experience. Lamu’s alleys were laid out to maximise shade and sea breeze — the buildings are oriented to catch the kaskazi and kusi monsoon winds, and the overhanging upper floors create a continuous canopy. The carved doors are a museum in themselves: each doorway represents the wealth and status of the family within, with brass studs originally used to deter war elephants adopted over time as purely decorative elements. The Swahili House Museum on Museum Lane presents an intact traditional interior — carved furniture, courtyards with wells, and decorative niches called zidaka — and provides context for what you see on the walk.
The Riyadha Mosque, built in the late 19th century, is Lamu’s most important religious institution and the focus of the annual Maulidi Festival — a celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birthday that draws pilgrims from across East Africa and as far as the Persian Gulf. The festival involves days of prayers, music, and processions and is the largest annual gathering on the Kenyan coast.
The neighbouring village of Shela, a 30-minute walk or short boat ride from Lamu Town, has its own 1829 pillar mosque and sits at the edge of a 14-kilometre dune beach — one of the finest beaches on the East African coast.
A Brief History of Lamu
Lamu town was established by the 14th century as part of the Swahili Coast network — a chain of trading towns stretching from Somalia to Mozambique that connected sub-Saharan Africa to the Indian Ocean trade system linking Arabia, Persia, India, and eventually China. The Swahili language itself emerged from this contact: a Bantu language structure carrying Arabic, Persian, and later Portuguese and English loanwords.
Lamu’s architecture reflects the same fusion. The coral stone buildings, the courtyard design, and the carved wooden doors draw on East African, Arabian, and Indian building traditions simultaneously. The town prospered particularly under Omani Arab rule from the 17th century, and the Fort was built by the Omani governor in the 1820s following Lamu’s victory over the rival town of Pate at the Battle of Shela in 1812 — a battle in which Lamu aligned with Oman against a Mazrui faction.
Today approximately 2,500 people live in Lamu Old Town. The only motorised vehicles belong to the police and hospital — the town’s 2,000-plus working donkeys remain the primary freight transport, as they have been for more than 600 years. UNESCO designated Lamu Old Town a World Heritage Site in 2001.
Practical Tips
Lamu is served by Manda Island Airport, accessible by small aircraft from Nairobi (approximately one hour) and Mombasa. From the airport a short dhow ride crosses to Lamu Town — the transfer takes about five minutes. There are no cars in town: movement is entirely on foot or by donkey, with longer distances covered by boat between Lamu, Shela, and the mainland. The town is compact and walkable in a single day, though the alley network rewards extended exploration. Dress modestly — Lamu is a predominantly Muslim community and covered shoulders and knees are expected. The dry seasons (June to September and January to February) offer the most comfortable walking conditions; the long rains of April to May can make unpaved lanes muddy. Lamu’s annual Maulidi Festival (date varies by Islamic calendar) is the single most atmospheric time to visit, but accommodation books out completely in advance.
Watch & Explore More
David Burns has filmed walks through multiple East African towns and cities, capturing the texture of everyday life in a straightforward documentary style. For related East African walking tours, see the Mombasa Old Town and Fort Jesus walk and the Stone Town Zanzibar Spice Island tour. More walking content at @walkingtoursvideoscom.