An ornate, blue, ‘Zanzibar Door’ in Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania.
Stone Town is the historic part of Zanzibar City, which is the main town on the Zanzibar archipelago. It is situated on the west coat of Unguja, which is the largest of the islands of the archipelago. Most of the buildings currently in Stone Town date from the 19th Century, though there is evidence of settlement on the island of almost two thousand years. The architecture of Stone Town reflects a wide, multicultural heritage so it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.
The Stone Town of Zanzibar is a fine example of the Swahili coastal trading towns of East Africa. It retains its urban fabric and townscape virtually intact and contains many fine buildings that reflect its particular culture, which has brought together and homogenized disparate elements of the cultures of Africa, the Arab region, India, and Europe over more than a millennium.
UNESCO
The streets of Stone Town are randomly arranged and form a labyrinth in which I got lost several times. However, even in the evening, the shops are occupied and people are visibly getting on with their lives.
A famous feature of many buildings in Stone Town are the ‘Zanzibar Doors’, which themselves reflect the multicultural background of the architects, builders and owners.
There are an estimated 560 doors around Zanzibar city (the majority in Stone Town), and most of them are over a century old. And they’re very, very easy to find – just start wandering in a random direction, and you’ll surely find Zanzibar doors everywhere! The front doors of many buildings in Zanzibar’s beautiful Stone Town are individual works of art, but carry deeper meanings – measures of the original occupant’s social status and religion are advertised here.
Sticky Mango Rice
This photo of a Blue Zanzibar Door is copyright © Liz Leyden, all rights strictly as agreed in writing with the author or her agent.
It is available for sale as various types of wall art, and as home and personal accessories, from my gallery at Pixels.com.
The photo is available to purchase as royalty-free stock images from iStock.
