The House of Wonders features a wide, multi-story veranda supported by slender cast-iron columns that rose above the Zanzibar waterfront in eighteen eighty-three. Sultan Barghash bin Said commissioned this palace as a ceremonial showpiece, installing the first electric elevator in East Africa to move guests between floors. When the British fleet bombarded the harbor in eighteen ninety-six, the building suffered heavy damage, yet it remained the tallest structure in the city, its clock tower still ticking above the stone town rooftops.
House of Wonders
museum
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