Mombasa

Mombasa is a city in the country of Kenya on the planet Earth. It consisted of a run down section known as "Old Mombasa" on the coast of the continent, as well as a prosperous section called "New Mombasa" on a small island just off the coast of the city, connected by bridges. It is fairly close to Voi.

Old Mombasa
In 2552, New Mombasa was a thriving metropolis. The area across Kilindini Harbour, on the mainland, was a completely different story.

The mainland districts were stifled, ironically, by their thirst for growth. During the 21st and 22nd centuries, sea levels worldwide began rising due to global warming. Port cities around the planet were faced with a choice: construct flood control measures, or drown. In Mombasa, it was decided that, rather than shore up the old docks on Mombasa Island, it would be easier to build brand new ports on the mainland, southwest of the city. So massive seawalls were built to hold back the rising waters, and new dock structures extended out into Kilindini Harbour.

For a time, these docks brought prosperity to the mainland. Shanty towns were demolished to make way for new office buildings, highways were constructed, and commerce thrived. But by the end of the 23rd century, global warming began to reverse as new technologies emerged and millions of people departed Earth for colonies in the rest of the Solar System. Sea levels began receding as temperatures dropped worldwide. In time, the port facilities on the mainland were left literally high and dry.

Unfortunately, interstellar travel was discovered just as the mainland's ports became useless. As a result, the space elevator and its attendant port system was constructed on Mombasa Island instead. Consequently, the island-city transformed into the hi-tech metropolis of New Mombasa, while the mainland area languished, closed off behind its useless seawall. By 2552, Old Mombasa, as the mainland came to be called, had remained much the same. Its architecture is an odd hodgepodge of old and new: 16th-century Muslim arcades, aging 21st-century office buildings, looming 26th-century power couplings, old concrete homes secured with computerized locks. Clotheslines strung next to power lines, and mechanical gates set into ancient brick walls. The culture also seems displaced; while New Mombasa is populated with industrial workers and ambitious cosmopolitans, Old Mombasa is considered to be more of an old rundown slum that deteriorates by the day.

New Mombasa
Mombasa underwent dramatic change with the arrival of the interstellar era. In response to increasing demand for cheap orbital access, the government began construction on one of the wonders of the age: a space elevator (Mombasa's proximity to the equator made it an ideal location). This structure served to lift heavy cargo into geosynchronous orbit without expensive booster rockets filled with fuel.

The elevator transformed the city; Mombasa was now one of the most important port cities on Earth. There was an immediate influx of trade, people, and jobs; as a result, the landscape of the city was completely re-imagined. Within a century, the old apartment buildings and hotels on Mombasa Island had been torn down and replaced with the latest architecture: monolithic archaeological findings, vast industrial complexes, and gleaming office towers. The demand for expansion of the city's services was so great, in fact, that a large canal was cut through the old downtown sector of Sidiriya, to provide docking space for countless incoming cargo ships. It was during this period of tremendous growth that the city became known as "New Mombasa".

By the 26th century the city was a dynamic, cosmopolitan metropolis, boasting such amenities as a mile-long suspension bridge, a highly efficient MagLev rail system, an automatic highway network, and large-scale recreational areas.

Mombasa Suspension Bridge
The Mombasa Suspension Bridge is one of few bridges connecting New Mombasa to the Mainland, through Old Mombasa. The bridge has 44 main cables, which all go down to the center of the bridge. There is a toll booth at each end of the bridge, possibly hinting that it cost money to cross the bridge, and you had to pay twice either way. In Halo 2, SPARTAN-117 crossed the bridge in a Scorpion Tank during the Battle of Earth, to get to New Mombasa and to the Assault Carrier, whilst pursuing a Scarab Walker. On a scaled map, the Mombasa suspension bridge is actually 1.09 Km long, making it almost the length of a Halcyon-class Cruiser.