Zanzibar Stone Town

Zanzibar Stone Town is a unique place. The intriguing history tells us about brave sea traders, explorers, Sultans and the fragrance of exotic spices. The exceptional architecture and construction of the coral stone buildings and narrow streets carries the imprints of the influences of various cultures and traditions brought in by the Stone Town inhabitants. Each building; its windows, its carved doors, its walls tells its own historical past.

In the year 2000, Zanzibar Stone Town got inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Following this, some committed citizens and well-wishers interested in conserving and preserving Stone Town, decided to form a non-governmental organisation. The Zanzibar Stone Town Heritage Society was officially registered in June 2002. Currently, the Society has a membership of over 200 members, and works with communities within Stone Town in preserving its heritage and culture.

• The Town of Zanzibar is an outstanding material manifestation of cultural fusion and harmonization. Mosques to churches, Indian temples to the Omani palaces and so forth are a testimony to the thousands of years of mutual tolerance among communities of different cultural origins.

• For many centuries there was intense sea borne trading activity between Asia and Africa, and this is illustrated in an exceptional manner by the architecture and urban structure of Stone Town.

• Zanzibar has great symbolic importance in the suppression of slavery, since it was one of the main slave-trading ports in East Africa and also the base from which its opponents such as David Livingstone conducted their campaigns.