A city of southeast Kenya mainly on Mombasa Island, in the Indian Ocean north of Zanzibar. Visited by Vasco da Gama on his first voyage to India (1498), the island-city was ruled successively by Portugal, Oman, Zanzibar, and Great Britain until the early 20th century. Population: 799,000.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
