Visit Zanzibar’s Cultural Hub, The Stone Town

Stone Town is one of the East Africa’s living “Swahili” towns and it attracts its visitors for the unique winding and the narrow streets it has along with the beautiful buildings. The town was established by the Arab Slave & spice traders during the early nineteenth century. The town is also among the UNESCO’s world heritage sites enabling many of the beautiful-houses being renovated.

The town is on the Indian Ocean facing the mainland of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania’s capital city and is easy to reach so book an affordable and cheap flights to Tanzania to start the exciting journey. Stone Town’s name was derived from the ornate-houses the town has which were built by the Arab traders/slaver during nineteenth century and it it’s estimated that about 600,000 slaves were traded between 1830 to 1863 in Zanzibar alone. To deal with the issue of slavery at such a scale a treaty was signed in 1863 to stop the practice and was agreed by both the British and the Omani-Sultans who were the rulers of Zanzibar at that time.

Stone Town is also important to the historic fact that it used to be as a base by many of the European explorers like David Livingstone. Their influence is further reflected in the ornate-trellises & balconies of many of the town’s buildings. You have much to discover in Stone Town when you are there and all of town’s attractions are within walking distances so you don’t need to travel large distances in order to fully appreciate the beauty of the town. The most important of the town’s attractions include the Beit-El-Ajab also known as the House of Wonders which was built by Sultan Barghash in 1870’s. The Anglican Cathedral was built by the British in 1873 on old slave-market’s site.

Build by Tharia Thopen in 1887 was the Nasur Nur Mohamed Dispensary (Tharia Thopen was the richest man of his time in Zanzibar). Apart from these you can explore the fascinating and famous market which is quite alike the markets in other parts of North Africa.

You can find plenty of accommodation solutions once you get there and some of the best rated hotels to stay there include the Zanzibar Palace Hotel consisting of 9 luxury rooms. Dhow Palace Hotel is also a good option offering 28 bright and airy rooms at a mid-range cost and the rooms are also antique furnished. Zenji Hotel offers economical rooms for simple accommodation and has a total of six rooms. Zanzibar Coffee House offers eight rooms (mid-range) and is among the oldest buildings of the town and is located at town’s heart and renovated beautifully.