In the Indian Ocean is an abundance of attractions including water sports. Organised beach safaris along the Mombasa coast including scuba diving, big game fishing, jet skiing, wind surfing, parasailing, beach parachuting, swimming with dolphins, coral garden snorkeling among others can easily be arranged.

The coral reefs teem with fish, a kaleidoscope of colours and life. A range of boats can be hired to explore the Mombasa coast, including Hobie cats and sailing skiffs. Sea Kayaks are also widely used for exploring remote coves and sheltered bays. Shimoni is a good place for those looking to charter yachts.

Both yachts and crews are available for private charter. Mombasa is a great place to explore by yacht, or the perfect base from which to set sail for Zanzibar to the South or the Red Sea to the North. Scuba and Snorkeling Diving is generally good all year round, although visibility lessens during July and August due to silting.

There are dive sites ranged along the coast from Tiwi south to Shimoni. Some of the best sites are centred on Kisiite Mpunguti Marine Reserve. This area is home to large Manta Rays which are occasionally encountered on dive expeditions. In February-March each year, there are almost guaranteed sightings of Whale Sharks on outer reef dives along the Kenyan Coast.

One of the best scuba dive site is Nyulli Reef which presents a good deep dive site with strong tidal currents. Here you may catch a glimpse of snapper, barracuda, rare zebra sharks and massive Napoleon wrasse. An easier dive is Kisiite Point. There is plenty of large, tame shoals to be found here, with average dive depth at around 12 metres.

Scuba Divers at the point often encounter hawksbill turtles and bottlenose dolphins. Wreck Diving is possible at the Northern end of this strip of coast, on the MV Unfunguo, a former trawler, which has now become a thriving artificial reef. Since the wreck split open some years ago, the inner hull has become a massive haven for sea life, and makes for a truly spectacular dive.

The world's earliest civilisations in Mesopotamia (beginning with Sumer), ancient Egypt, and the Indian subcontinent (beginning with the Indus Valley civilization), which began along the valleys of the Tigris-Euphrates, Nile and Indus rivers respectively, had all developed around the Indian Ocean.

Civilizations soon arose in Persia (beginning with Elam) and later in Southeast Asia (beginning with Funan). During Egypt's first dynasty (c. 3000 BC), sailors were sent out onto its waters, journeying to Punt, thought to be part of present-day Somalia. Returning ships brought gold and myrrh. The earliest known maritime trade between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley (c. 2500 BC) was conducted along the Indian Ocean.

Phoenicians of the late 3rd millennium BC may have entered the area, but no settlements resulted. The Indian Ocean is far calmer and thus opened to trade earlier than the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans. The powerful monsoons also meant ships could easily sail west early in the season, then wait a few months and return eastwards.

This allowed Indonesian peoples to cross the Indian Ocean to settle in Madagascar. In the second or first century BC, Eudoxus of Cyzicus was the first Greek to cross the Indian Ocean. Hippalus is said to have discovered the direct route from Arabia to India around this time. During the first and second centuries intensive trade relations developed between Roman Egypt and the Tamil kingdoms of the Cheras, Cholas and Pandyas in Southern India.

Like the Indonesian peoples above, the western sailors used the monsoon to cross the ocean. The unknown author of the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea describes this route and the ports and trade goods along the coasts of Africa and India around AD 70. From 1405 to 1433, Admiral Zheng He led large fleets of the Ming Dynasty on several voyages to the Western Ocean (Chinese name for the Indian Ocean) and reached the coastal country of East Africa. (see Zheng He for reference) In 1497, Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and became the first European to sail to India.

The European ships, armed with heavy cannon, quickly dominated trade. Portugal at first attempted to achieve pre-eminence by setting up forts at the important straits and ports. But the small nation was unable to support such a vast project, and they were replaced in the mid-17th century by other European powers. The Dutch East India Company (1602-1798) sought control of trade with the East across the Indian Ocean. France and Britain established trade companies for the area.

Eventually Britain became the principal power and by 1815 dominated the area. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 revived European interest in the East, but no nation was successful in establishing trade dominance. Since World War II the United Kingdom has withdrawn from the area, to be only partially replaced by India, the USSR, and the United States. The last two have tried to establish hegemony by negotiating for naval base sites.

Developing countries bordering the ocean, however, seek to have it made a "zone of peace" so that they may use its shipping lanes freely, though the United Kingdom and United States maintain a military base on Diego Garcia atoll in the middle of the Indian Ocean. On December 26, 2004, the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean were hit by a tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. The waves resulted in more than 226,000 deaths and over 1 million were left homeless.