After our tour of the spice farm, we drive into Zanzibar City for a walking tour Stone Town, the historical part of the city. It starts off at the local market where we see all kinds of food on display. The meat and fish sections have a particularly distinctive smell. I try to hold my breath, but it seeps in anyway.

Safely on the other side, we walk over to the former slave market. Zanzibar was the main port for shipping African slaves to the Middle East and Asia, and was the last place to officially abolish the trade in 1876.

As you can read in the picture above, a church now stands over the former slave market. Unfortunately, the interior is under construction so we’re unable to go inside to see the high altar.

Africans were brought from all over the main continent, captured by the Arabs and held here until they could be shipped overseas. As many as 50,000 slaves passed through here every year, which doesn’t include the thousands that died before they even reached the island. David Livingstone lived here during is time exploring Africa and was a huge proponent of abolishing the trade.

History really comes alive here. It’s hard to see how slaves were treated but important to know.

As we walk out, we see this funny car parked on the street. I’m not sure if someone actually drives it, but it doesn’t have much of an interior.

Our guide leads us through so many turns and twists of the town. We never would have been able to figure this out on our own.

This communal area is so funny. It’s called Make Free International Calls Please. That’s its actual name. Locals gather here to watch TV, usually football (soccer) but also other programs as well.

Did you know Freddie Mercury from Queen was born here in Stone Town? This was his home, before he went to India for school. Seriously, I had no idea (well, until I started planning the trip anyway)!

The apartment is just a couple blocks up from the waterfront, where we head next.

To continue the spice tour from earlier, our guide points out this almond tree. So that’s what they look like!

This building is the Old Fort, followed by the House of Wonders, which got its name because of its size and the fact that it had running water and electricity before anywhere else on the island.

Everyone we’ve met so far say we HAVE to try Zanzibar pizza. It’s a legit thing here. So of course we have to check it out (FYI it’s delish!).

Finally it’s time for some souvenir shopping! We haven’t had time (or options) for any shopping so far, so we pretty much get everything now.

And with that, our day of touristing is done! I have one more post to tell you about my dive trip and that will sadly bring my Tanzania trip to an end! Can’t wait for you to see the pictures!