HOUSE OF WONDERS (BEIT-EL-AJAIB)
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This house, decorated with carved doors and engraved with verses from the Koran, was the first to be electrified and equipped with an elevator.
While the museum previously remained open unofficially - at least partially as part of the palace collapsed in 2011 - it is permanently closed to the public after another collapse in 2020. Built in 1883 as the residence of the island's3rd sultan, Barghash, it was designed by a British naval engineer and erected on the ruins of the palace of the Afro-Persian Queen Fatuma. It was, at the time, the largest residence in East Africa, dedicated to the ceremonies and receptions of the Sultan, decorated with carved doors and engraved with verses of the Koran as well as marble floors. This house was the first to be electrified, then to have an elevator, which earned it the name of House of Wonders. It was connected by footbridges (called wikios) to the adjacent palaces, allowing the women of the palace to move about unseen. It was miraculously spared the bombardment of the British blitzkrieg in 1896, unlike the neighbouring Beit al-Hukum Palace. The imposing structure is topped by a bell tower with a clock. The palace was occupied by the British from 1911 and by the JCC after the revolution, before becoming a national museum. Opposite, at the water's edge, are three cannons bearing the seals of 16th-century Portuguese kings, confiscated by the Persians during the battle but later given back to the Sultan of Oman, who brought them back to Zanzibar.
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