Stone Town Zanzibar

The cultural heart of Zanzibar, Stone Town, was built by Arab and Indian merchants in the 19th century. Everywhere else on the island, houses are built using the traditional wattle and mud daub. Yet in Stone Town, the buildings are made from small blocks of coral limestone bound with a mixture of lime and laterite, a technique that enables the construction of multi-storey structures. Most have three floors, and are decorated with elaborately carved wooden doors and balconies, inspired by the carvings of Bombay.

Unlike the older parts of many of the world’s cities, Stone Town. There are about 15,000 permanent inhabitants and a ‘floating population’ of more than 100,000, which includes the 90 per cent of civil servants who work here.

In recent years, many buildings have collapsed or fallen into a serious state of disrepair. Most of the 1,900 or so buildings in the 96-hectare site are only about 200 years old, explains Mwalim Ali Mwalim, senior architect for the Stone Town Conservation and Development Authority (STCDA). However, most feature two significant design faults: firstly, a flat roof that is fine for Oman’s dry climate but unsuitable for Zanzibar’s rainfall; secondly, the buildings have no damp-proofing, so the majority of ground floors are inundated with damp. Water, he says, is “public enemy number one” and ultimately the cause of most house collapses. And although many flat roofs have been replaced by pitched ones, this has often meant the loss of the traditional crenellations that crown many older buildings.

Another problem is what Mwalim Ali refers to as “infills” - the building that are constructed to occupy the gaps left by collapsed or abandoned structures. Many replacement buildings resemble “boxers’ teeth”. The buildings also go against the recommendations of the STCDA, but the authority is powerless to prevent them being built without more resources. Like so many of Tanzania’s historical sites, Stone Town desperately needs funding to help arrest its deterioration. In the year 2000, Zanzibar Stone Town got inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.