The Fort, built by the Por­tuguese in 1593–1596 to the designs of Gio­van­ni Bat­tista Cairati to pro­tect the port of Mom­basa, is one of the most out­stand­ing and well pre­served exam­ples of 16th Por­tuguese mil­i­tary for­ti­fi­ca­tion and a land­mark in the his­to­ry of this type of con­struc­tion. The Fort’s lay­out and form reflect­ed the Renais­sance ide­al that per­fect pro­por­tions and geo­met­ric har­mo­ny are to be found in the human body. The prop­er­ty cov­ers an area of 2.36 hectares and includes the fort’s moat and imme­di­ate sur­round­ings.