Figure 7.1. Zanzibar Town, 1846. The map shows a narrow strip of land on the south that was the only connection across a creek that separated the town from the main island on the east. The first half of the nineteenth century was a period of rapid growth for Zanzibar. This map is the earliest detailed record of the town to survive. It shows a central area of stone houses surrounded by mud and thatch houses, which covered most of the peninsula and spread across the creek at Darajani, the narrowest crossing point. Though mud huts might have dominated the edges of the town as shown in this map, they were also located within stone houses all over the town. (Source: Map of Zanzibar, 1846 [Plan de Zanzibar, 1846]. Erhard Schieblé; Kœppelin, printing; Arthus Bertrand, editor. In “Voyage à lacôte orientale d’Afrique,” surveyed and written by Ch. Guillain, folio-atlas, plate 9, 1856–1857.)

Figure 7.9. Map of Zanzibar drawn by the Survey of India in 1892 under the direction of Consul General Gerald Portal. The map is the first to accurately show the street pattern and indicate all the names of the different mitaa of the town. To the north, the Darajani Bridge was still the main route out of the town. A road along the neck of land called Mnazi Mmoja provides a new route out of town to the south. In addition, there was a canoe ferry service that crossed to the main island from Mkunazini, and a low-tide track which traversed the creek at its southern end. (Source: Author)

Figure 7.10. Map of Zanzibar City, drawn by Baumann, 1896, based on the 1892 survey. (Source: Oscar Baumann, Die lnsel Sansibar und Ihre Kleineren Nachbarinseln. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, 1897.]