The Doors of Stonetown

When a house was built in Stonetown, traditionally the first part to be erected was the door .The greater the wealth and position of the owner of the house, the larger and more elaborately carved the door.

This owner must have been rich and prominent.

And this owner much more ordinary.

Loved the color of this one!

The arch on the top indicates that this is an Indian style door.  The heavy brass studs that poke out from the door are another indicator of the style brought from India.  The studs were to protect the house from war elephants.  Now there are no war elephants on Zanzibar so this is definitely just a style thing and probably a reminder of home in India.

                                          

This door is the entrance to the home owned by the infamous slave trader Tipu Tip who made a fortune in the slave trade, returned to Zanzibar, bought many clove plantations and built this house.

Even though he isn't an admirable person, the carving on his door is quite amazingly intricate and beautiful.

I had to zoom way in in order to see this one and it is a bit blurry but you can see the Arabic script which is probably a verse from the Koran.

I took a lot of photos of doors!  To me they are works of art and worthy of their designation as an UNESCO World Heritage site! Edidah finally told me to quit that I had enough pictures of doors!  I guess she was right!