Mombasa travels to the Swahili Coast and made some mention of the city, although he only stayed one night. He noted that the people of Mombasa were Shãfi'i Muslims, religious people, trustworthy and righteous. Their mosques are made of wood, expertly built. The exact founding date of the city is unknown, but it has a long history. Kenyan school history books place the founding of Mombasa as 900 A.D. It must have been already a prosperous trading town in the 12th century, as the Arab geographer Al Idrisi mentions it in 1151. The oldest stone mosque in Mombasa, Mnara, was built
Mombasa Nova (1505) and Afonso de Albuquerque (1507). In the film "Out of Africa", Mombasa is the train destination as the seaport for voyages to Europe via the Suez Canal, and Mombasa is indicated as downriver ("This water must go home to Mombasa"). Mombasa is a pivotal setting in the highly popular "Halo" video game series. Mombasa appears as a major setting in "Halo 2", and the entirety of "" takes place in Mombasa. The science fiction games are set in the year 2552, and the city has been divided into "Old Mombasa" and "New Mombasa" (a prosperous section filled with