I then found myself in the city of Zanzibar, or more specifically the old section of the city known as Stonetown.
So called because all the buildings in the area are built out of coral rock (and mud and concrete). Its a pre-colonial town in that it has quite a few buildings that were built by the Sultan who ran the place before the Europeans arrived... Then of course there are buildings from the colonial/slave trading era added and finally post colonial buildings too though these are mostly outside of the old town. The old stone buildings are mostly about three stories tall and all you can really see of them is their exteriors with wooden window shutters on the upper levels and huge old double wooden doors with elaborate brass bosses and detailed wood carvings in their frames... They are very stout and all have heavy latch/lock mechanisms so one assumes there were some very lawless times in the past. The network of intersecting lanes running through the town are what give the place a lot of its charm with the lanes following no real "plan" and certainly not intended for vehicular transport... Many of them are less than 2m wide. Much of the old town is still occupied as living space for local people with the remainder of course having been adapted as tourist hotels/lodges, coffee shops and tourist curio shops. But despite the high "touristification" factor the place is still well worth seeing.
I took a pile of pictures though I don't think I really captured its flavour well... same old problem... Its rude to take pictures of people like its a zoo, so I just couldn't bring myself to take frontal pictures and most of them are from behind... Anyway, here are a bunch of pics :)
Old Doors
And old scooters
And life around town
