ZANZIBAR
: Stone Town
Stone Town, on the island of Zanzibar, is redolent of the mixed cultures of
traders who visited the Swahili coast of Africa in times gone by. The tall,
tightly packed houses, characterised by wooden balconies and carved doors,
reflect a fusion of Indian and Arab architecture. Outstanding monuments are
the Old Dispensary, built in honour of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria,
the `House of Wonders` dating from 1883 - said to be the first building in
East Africa to have an elevator - and the Beit al-Sahel, palace-museum,
devoted to the era of the Zanzibar sultanate. Stone Town's population of
some 16,000 is predominantly Muslim, but among some fifty mosques are also
two grand cathedrals: St Joseph's Catholic Cathedral, and the Anglican
Cathedral of Christ. The latter stands on the site of the old slave market
and contains a cross made from the mupundu tree in Zambia where porters
buried David Livingstone's heart before carrying his body to the mission, at
Bagamoyo, on the north coast of Tanzania. Livingstone began his epic African
journey from Zanzibar, in 1855. Similar to other local buildings, his old
house overlooks the Indian Ocean where lateen sail dhows still blow before
the East African Trades. Also characteristic of local architecture is a
mafraj, a room on the very the top of the house where fanned by ocean
breezes, male members gather to drink tea. Stone Town was inscribed on the
World Heritage list in 2000.