The Stone Town Cultural Centre provides space for Zanzibar

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The Stone Town Cultural Centre provides space for Zanzibar cultural events, including art exhibitions, the Zanzibar International Film Festival, traditional dance and music, as well as private social functions such as weddings. It hosts conferences and rents offices and retail space.

As you walk through the town, please remember that Stone Town is very much a real community, where real people live and work. It is not a museum piece or theme park created for tourists, and sensitivity should be shown to the local people.

If you want to learn more about Stone Town, there are various ways to do it. You can either wander through the narrow streets by yourself armed with a map, or you can embark on a tour with one of the local tour operators.

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The Shirazi Persians and the Omani Arabs, settled and ruled the Sultanate which explains the Arab dominated influences which endure today.

Indian influence can be seen from ornamental fretwork balconies and coloured glasswork and Gujerati traders selling anything from coriander to curios. The English left are some solid imperial buildings which stand 'aloof' in the more select parts of town, and some ex-pats that couldn't bear to leave.

Renowned features of The Stone Town are heavily carved and studded Zanzibar doors, which relieve the plain exteriors of many houses, many of which are dilapidating slowly. It is important to remember that this is a mainly Muslim society whose customs should be honoured, so keep the skimpy bathing suits for the beach.

Stone town

It may not have a particularly romantic name, but Stone Town is the old city and cultural heart of Zanzibar, little changed in the last 200 years. It is a place of winding alleys, bustling bazaars, mosques and grand Arab houses whose original owners vied with each other over the extravagance of their dwellings. This one-upmanship is particularly reflected in the brass-studded, carved, wooden doors - there are more than 500 different examples of this handiwork. You can spend many idle hours and days just wandering through the fascinating labyrinth of narrow streets and alleyways.

Most of the houses that can be seen today were 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. This is evident by the large number of houses that are in a bad state of repair. Several buildings have already been renovated and the Stone Town Conservation Authority has been established to co-ordinate the restoration of the town to its original magnificence. Pictured opposite is a 'before and after' look at the restoration work done on the Old Dispensary. As a result of sensible policy, nearly all of the major hotels built in Stone Town are housed in renovated buildings.

Hotels in Stone Town include the Zanzibar Serena Inn, Tembo House Hotel, Dhow Palace Hotel and Hotel International.

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