Rocky Road

Stone Town is the UNESCO World Heritage listed part of the capital and a maze of small alleys like every other old town in the world. Could easily be Andalucia except for the young girls having lunch beside the road.
Most of the town was built in the 19th century when Zanzibar was one of the most important trading centres in the Indian Ocean region. The coraline rock of Zanzibar was a good building material but it is also easily eroded and many houses are falling apart. Thanks to UNESCO they are gradually being fixed up and a theme park developed.
Really, this is just a bit of quasi-cultural voyeurism for sweaty tourists looking to spend a couple of weeks on one of the delightful beaches, It is easy to avoid Tanzanian poverty by not venturing into the interior except perhaps on an air-conditioned tour of one of the clove or cinnamon plantations.Read more