Zanzibar Mosques

• Many Stone Town mosques are of simple construction.

The Mnara mosque is amoung the oldest in Stone Town. It is also sometimes called the Malindi Mosque because of it's location in the Malindi neighborhood of Zanzibar City.

 The Hujjatul Islam mosque has one of the most ornate exteriors.

The Laghbari mosque has one of the finest interiors.

The Bagh Muharmi mosque has the tallest minaret.

The Kizimkazi mosque, located south of Stone Town, was built in 1107 AD and is the oldest on the main Island (Unguja). It is still used today by the people of Kizimkazi village.

Here is an ancient (apx.1300 AD) mosque-ruin on Pemba I photographed in 2000, near Ras Mkumbuu.

These are images of only a few of the mosques of Zanzibar there are many more.

No survey of East African mosques would be complete without mentioning The Great Mosque at Kilwa.

A sometimes partner, sometimes competitor of old Zanzibar, this island city-state well south of Zanzibar built the largest ancient mosque south of the Sahara.

The extensive mosque-ruins on Zanzibar's Tumbatu Island may have been a precursor of this beautiful type of design.