Stone Town

Finishing up some vacation posts. I thought about not posting it, but the history of this place was just astounding. I know you aren’t reading this for a travel blog but just in case you ever plan a trip to Tanzania. If you go to town in Zanzibar, the people are referring to Stone Town. It’s been named a world heritage sight by UNESCO and you should probably wikipedia it.

The town is built with coral stone, very narrow cobblestone streets and the because of it’s history of colonization, being the base for the slave trade from the East African countries, home base for David Livingston, and mix of Indian, Arab, Tanzanian roots, it’s unlike any other city I have seen and our pictures, most of them taken covertly, do not do this town justice!

This is where I did our grocery shopping. 

We rode on public transport. Little A looked around and said, “Hey, do you know you are the only white people on this bus?” :)

At any moment on the rooftops, I thought I was going to see Aladdin and Abu leaping from the rooftops.

A fig vendor wheeling his wares.

One of the narrow streets we walked on towards the harbor.

A crazy, beautiful mess. We sat and watched boats come in from fishing and others from Tanzania.

This was some archaic building that we were too hot to do a tour of. The girls also really wanted to swim.

A friend from the house we were staying at helped with the kid load through the market.

The buildings are stout but because of the heat and ocean air, many are rusted or crumbling. Most are also centuries old!

This is about when the girls have decided it’s too hot to go a step further.

Jon agrees. 

There is a pride in detail through every narrow street, walking along drab buildings and then there is a door like this. From what I can read, there’s a sense of one-upmanship throughout the town. 

 I’ll go back to Ethiopia post now. :)