Mombasa in Mombasa. Mombasa Marathon is competed annually in Mombasa. The town also hosts the biennial classic edition of Safari Rally and annually a Kenya National Rally Championship round. Scuba diving takes place mostly within the Mombasa Marine National Park and Reserve, which is managed and maintained by Kenya Wildlife Service. The park has a length of about . During its history, Mombasa was visited by numerous pioneers of the maritime exploration, such as the Arabs Al Idrissi (1151) and Ibn Battuta (1330), the Chinese Zheng He (1413) or the Portuguese Vasco da Gama (1498), Pedro Álvares Cabral (1500) João da
1428 Mombasa years prior to its official discovery at Johannesburg. American astronomer Robert Stephens obtained a rotational lightcurve of "Mombasa" in June 2012. Light-curve analysis gave a rotation period of 16.67 hours with a brightness variation of 0.16 magnitude (). Previous lightcurves were obtained by French amateur astronomer René Roy in February 2006 (17.6 hours, Δ0.15 mag; ), as well as by Scot Hawkins and Richard Ditteon at Oakley Observatory in May 2007 (17.12 hours, Δ0.25 mag; ). On the SMASS taxonomic scheme, "Mombasa" is a , an intermediate between the carbonaceous C and X-type, while it is also described as a