Thim Lich Ohinga

“While the Portuguese had their fort Jesus, the Luo’s had their ‘Thim Lich Ohinga’” Silas Nyagweth, the curator at site tells me moments after I had made my way into the giant self-imposing stone structures, built in the 15th century but still with the ability to send our best architectures scratching their heads for explanations on how it was made.
Thim Lich Ohinga, a Luo word loosely translated into a frightening dense forest and a fort, has for sometimes now elicited just as much interest as curiosity from adventurers, archeologists, and architectures alike.
Made up of stone walls ranging from a meter to about four and a half meters, this structures not only epitomes the art of architecture in the olden days, but also has got a near perfect combination of beauty, strength and balance.
Situated just out of Migori town, deep into the west of the country towards the shores of Lake Victoria at Sori, this historical site has almost striking resemblance to the ruins of the great Zimbabwe in southern Africa.
Thim lich has always been a source of different researches, none yet to come up with the exact explanation of how the ancient man, always rebuffed for his perceived ‘backwardness; could have come up with a near perfect art.
A couple of monkeys make their way past where we are standing. He informs me that this place, that’s so enchanting to any visitor, was back in the year 2002 listed as number forty eight among the most endangered sites in the world.
The air in the forest is scented with herbs and wildflowers that proliferate on this area and the mountainous interior is further adorned with slender cypress trees and cider. In fact, so varied and colourful is the landscape that I believe this is the best part of the fort to explore, especially on foot.
He explains that there are four homes here, known as Kochieng, kakuku, Kokech and Koluoch combine to make the Thim Lich Ohinga.
From the beautiful canopy being formed by the trees, verdant fertile land, which was the reasons people, settled into the forts in the first place, coupled with the stunning mountainous scenery of Macalder gold mines, one of the oldest gold mines in the region glittering above the home, the home is simply breath taking.
It is almost time to leave but Silas asks me to accompany them for lunch, which as I would have expected, has got fish as one of the major ingredients. I am late but he tells me it is un African to decline food offer and so we eat before I leave the "fort Jesus".