Zanzibar (city)

Zanzibar (city), city on the western coast of Zanzibar island, eastern Tanzania. Lying in a natural harbour, in the path of winds from the Arabian Peninsula, the town has been an important trading post since the 8th century. Fishing is the town’s main industry, but there is also trade in tobacco, coconuts, copra, and fruit, as well as the manufacture of clove oil. Zanzibar is the island's chief port and is served by both large and small vessels. It is also the centre of the island's road system and the location of an international airport.

Zanzibar’s diverse history is reflected in its eclectic architecture. The old medieval quarter, Stone Town, since 2000 a UNESCO World Heritage Site, shows the influence of Arabian, Indian, British, and Portuguese styles. Of particular note are the palace Beit-el-Ajaib, built by Sultan Barghash in 1883, and the hundreds of finely crafted studded doorways that line Stone Town’s labyrinthine streets. There are 2 museums and over 50 mosques. The city also contains the former residence of David Livingstone, from where he launched his expedition to discover the source of the Nile in 1866.

The city originated as early as the 8th century as a port and trade centre for, initially, ivory and spices. Settlement grew as Zanzibar's commercial importance increased, and it attracted traders from the Indian Ocean, Europe, and North America. As the slave trade developed in the 18th and 19th centuries, the settlement became the main slave entrepôt on the eastern coast of Africa. By the mid-19th century the city traded over 50,000 slaves annually, and was also a major centre for the export of cloves. A thriving, cosmopolitan community grew up and Zanzibar soon replaced Muscat as the capital of the coastal domains of Sultan Sayyid Said of Oman. Under the British protectorate (from 1890), the town was the administrative capital for both Zanzibar and Pemba Island, the slave market was suppressed and the mainland African towns of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa were developed as trading centres. Following a revolution on the island of Zanzibar and its subsequent union with Tanganyika to form the nation of Tanzania in 1964, the town remained the headquarters of the island's relatively autonomous administration. In the process most of the island's minority Arab and South Asian inhabitants were expelled. Population 157,634 (1988).