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Rang

Zanzibar's coral-stone city

Stone Town

The old quarter of Zanzibar City: pale, weathered coral-stone houses, great carved doors and bright kanga cloth.

Zanzibar with the Sultan's Palace. Photograped by Brocken Inaglory
Photo: No machine-readable author provided. Mbz1 assumed (based on copyright, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Why Stone Town is weathered coral white

Stone Town is the old part of Zanzibar City, on an island off the coast of Tanzania. It grew rich in the 19th century on cloves and, grimly, on the slave trade, under the sultans of Oman. Its tall houses mix Arab, Indian, African and European styles. They are built of coral rag, a rough stone, plastered with lime. Sea air stains the white to grey, cream and rust. The pride of each house is its door, carved in dark wood and set with brass studs. Colour comes from people: women wear the kanga, a printed cotton wrap with a bold border and a Swahili saying. Stone Town became a World Heritage Site in 2000.

Weathered coral white#E9E2D0Carved door brown#5B3A29Brass stud gold#C9A227Kanga red#C8342BOcean turquoise#3FB5B0

Values are fair approximations of what the eye sees there, not measurements.

Colours tied to Stone Town

WhiteThe lightest colour, seen in snow, milk and chalk, and opposite to black
About this page

Written by the Rang desk with AI assistance. Background: "Stone Town" on Wikipedia. If you know Stone Town and we have it wrong, tell us.

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Photo credits on this page

The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.

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