EU: Panorama of the harbour of Zanzibar (1910) through time

Zanzibar City 1880–1961 23 photos of this spot

23 photographs taken at the same spot in Zanzibar City, spanning 1880–1961 — 23 of them from before 1980. Line them up and watch the place change.

Local residents walk through a narrow street in Zanzibar City in 1880, part of the dense, coral-stone quarter later known as Stone Town, a mercantile port linking East Africa with the Arabian Peninsula and Indian Ocean.

EU: Voorbijgangers in een straat te Zanzibar (1880) 1880 Local residents walk through a narrow street in Zanzibar City in 1880, part of the dense, coral-stone quarter later known as Stone Town, a mercantile port linking East Africa with the Arabian Peninsula and Indian Ocean.

EU: Mensen en militairen bij het paleis van de sultan van Zanzibar (1880) 1880 Onlookers and soldiers gather near the Sultan's palace in Zanzibar City in 1880, when the palace served as the seat of the ruling Sultanate of Zanzibar, then at the height of its regional power over the Swahili coast trade.

EU: Street scene with Zanzibar Stores sign (1890) 1890 A street scene featuring the sign of the Zanzibar Stores is captured in this 1890 photograph of Zanzibar City, then the capital of the Sultanate of Zanzibar and a major East African trading port.

EU: Exterieur van het beschadigde paleis van de sultan van Zanzibar (1896) 1896 The damaged palace of the Sultan of Zanzibar is shown in this 1896 photograph, taken in the aftermath of the Anglo-Zanzibar War, a brief conflict in which British naval bombardment destroyed much of the sultan's palace complex in Zanzibar City.

EU: Voorbijgangers in een straat te Zanzibar (Street passersby) (c.1890-1910) 1900 Passersby cross a street in Zanzibar City in this photograph, dated to somewhere between 1890 and 1910, a period when the island was under British protectorate administration.

EU: Gezicht op een stad op Zanzibar (view of a town on Zanzibar) (1900) 1900 Zanzibar City's rooftops and coral-stone buildings are surveyed in this 1900 town view, typical of the panoramic photographs made of the port around that time.

EU: Quartel em Zanzibar (Barracks in Zanzibar) (1901) 1901 Another 1901 photograph of the barracks in Zanzibar City. The island had become a British protectorate in 1890, ending centuries of rule by the Sultanate of Zanzibar, long a major hub of Indian Ocean trade in spices and, formerly, enslaved people.

EU: Gezicht op een stad op Zanzibar (View of Stone Town rooftops) (c.1900-1920) 1910 Rooftops of Stone Town, Zanzibar, seen in a view photographed between about 1900 and 1920.

EU: Panorama van de haven van Zanzibar (Panorama of Zanzibar harbour) (1910) 1910 A panoramic photograph of Zanzibar City's harbour, taken in 1910.

EU: Panorama of the harbour of Zanzibar (1910) 1910 The harbour of Zanzibar City, photographed in 1910.

EU: Afrikaresa, Zanzibar - street scene (1961) 1961 A street scene in Zanzibar City photographed in 1961, capturing everyday life in the town not long before Zanzibar's independence from British rule two years later.

EU: Afrikaresa, Zanzibar - dhows at low tide (1961) 1961 Dhows rest on exposed sand at low tide off Zanzibar City in this 1961 photograph, a reminder of the tides that governed the harbour's traditional shipping.

EU: Afrikaresa, Zanzibar - fort and garden path (1961) 1961 This 1961 photograph shows a fort and a garden path in Zanzibar City, likely near the Old Fort that has stood on the Stone Town waterfront since the late 1600s, one of the oldest buildings in the old town.

EU: Afrikaresa, Zanzibar - dhow harbour (1961) 1961 Zanzibar's dhow harbour appears here in 1961, with wooden trading vessels crowding the anchorage that served Stone Town's waterfront for generations. The port sat at the heart of the island's long history as a trading hub on the Indian Ocean.

EU: Afrikaresa, Zanzibar - Stone Town alley with shops (1961) 1961 This 1961 photograph shows a Stone Town alley lined with shops, part of the dense network of narrow streets that characterizes Zanzibar's old trading quarter, laid out long before the arrival of motor vehicles.

EU: Afrikaresa, Zanzibar - street scene near the Old Fort (1961) 1961 A street scene near the Old Fort in Zanzibar City is captured in this 1961 photograph, close to the site of the 17th-century Omani fortress that has anchored Stone Town's waterfront for centuries.

EU: Afrikaresa, Zanzibar - harbour breakwater (1961) 1961 This 1961 photograph shows the breakwater at Zanzibar City's harbour, part of the port infrastructure that sheltered the town's dhow fleet from the open water of the Indian Ocean during the monsoon sailing season.

EU: Afrikaresa, Zanzibar - harbour dhows (1961) - HpZk 1961 This 1961 photograph shows dhows gathered in Zanzibar City's harbour, part of a wider series documenting the port town in the early 1960s, when Stone Town remained a working harbour for Indian Ocean sailing trade.

EU: Afrikaresa, Zanzibar - thatched houses, woodpile (1961) - HqAw 1961 This 1961 photograph shows thatched houses and a woodpile in Zanzibar City, a glimpse of everyday domestic life on the island in an area beyond the stone-built centre of Stone Town.

EU: Afrikaresa, Zanzibar - village houses (1961) - HqAz 1961 Village houses in Zanzibar City are pictured in this 1961 photograph, part of a series documenting the island's settlements outside Stone Town's historic core during the early 1960s.

EU: Afrikaresa, Zanzibar - village panorama (1961) - J9yE 1961 A panoramic view of a Zanzibar village is captured in this 1961 photograph, showing the low thatched-roof housing typical of the island's coastal communities outside the old trading town.

EU: Afrikaresa, Zanzibar - harbour boats (1961) - Hpe9 1961 Harbour boats are pictured at Zanzibar City in this 1961 photograph, showing the working waterfront of Stone Town during the final years before the island's 1963 independence from British rule.

EU: Afrikaresa, Zanzibar - dhow at anchor (1961) - Hpib 1961 A dhow rides at anchor off Zanzibar City in this 1961 photograph, one of many such sailing vessels that used the port, built along traditional lines with a hull designed for the trade winds of the Indian Ocean.