Kigali of what is now Rwanda were the Twa, a group of aboriginal pygmy hunter-gatherers who settled the area between 8000 and 3000 BC and remain in the country today. They were followed between 700 BC and 1500 AD by a number of Bantu groups, including the Hutu and Tutsi, who began clearing forests for agriculture. According to oral history the Kingdom of Rwanda was founded in the 14th century on the shores of Lake Muhazi, around east of modern Kigali. At that time Rwanda was a small state in a loose confederation with larger and more powerful neighbours, Bugesera and
Kigali being built in the 1920s by the Belgian colonial government as a home for civil servants and Swahili traders. This latter group were mostly members of the Islamic faith, which led to Nyamirambo being known as the "Muslim Quarter". Nyamirambo's Green Mosque ("Masjid al-Fatah") is the oldest mosque in Kigali, dating back to the 1930s. Travel publisher Rough Guides has described Nyamirambo as "Kigali's coolest neighbourhood", citing its multi-cultural status and an active nightlife, which is not found in much of the rest of the city. North of Nyamirambo, and west of the CBD is Nyabugogo. Situated at the lowest