Was built circa in the 1860s for Sultan Majid.
At the time it was used as a starting point by many of the European missionaries and pioneers who explored eastern and central Africa during the second half of the 19th century.
David Livingstone, the most famous of these explorers, lived in this house before sailing to the mainland for his last expedition.
The house was later used by members of the island’s Indian community, and in 1947 it was bought by the colonial government for use as a scientific laboratory of research into clove diseases.
After independence and the revolution it became the Zanzibar headquarters of the Tanzania Friendship Tourist Bureau, the forerunner of today’s ZTC.
