The Majesty Of The Sultanate Of Zanzibar. A Visit To An Archipelago That Defies Time. Encounter A Convergence Of Two Varied Traditions.

Stepping out of the sedan, the aroma of cloves fill the air as a farmer lays out carpets to dry the spice .

Tall trees donned with tiny pink-beige flowers hold the desired clove as it is the harvesting season.

Stopping by the Persian baths, so called because Sultan Seyyid Said, the industrial sultan who transferred his capital from Oman to Zanzibar, purposely designed the baths for his Persian wife on the best point on the island from where the Zanzibar beach view is marvelous.

Lacking the splendor left behind, the beaten baths are reminiscent of the grand old days of the sultanate when it became used as a country vacation in 1850.

All that remains today is the five toilets with dome roofs showing the elegance and the personal partition of the Sheherzade, the princess from Persia had a deep bath and a shallow well where the heated water surfaced as steam.

After bath, the princes would lie on the terraces for a massage with the finest oils of the day. Unfortunately, the Persian princess found countryside living rather too lifeless and left the Sultan to leave for home in Persia.

Enough with the baths, we take a stroll inside a spice farm, this is Stone Town.

Among the town's most famous houses is the Beit al Ajaib or the House of Wonders built by Sultan Barghash facing the seashore and the Stone Town.

Here there is a showcase of his sister, Princess Salme or Frau Emily Reute in the striking family house which had the finest etched wooden doors, first elevator, electrical power and water running from taps in late 17th Century.

Princess Salme, was the first Arab woman who educated herself how to read and write and became excommunicated for running away with a German merchant.

Her chronicles are the first authored by a woman of Arab lineage from a noble family.

We check into our residence, known as Beyt al Chai, a three storey limestone house in Stonetown where the aristocrats of the sultanate once enjoyed a cup of tea in the middle of small chat.

It has been extraordinarily renewed as a town house open to guest visitors with each room donned in fabulous silk and brocade with time old wooden fittings of teak and other hardwoods.

The cafe serves the best seafood on the island including platters of seafood prepared with skill and specialisation.

At dawn, we walk into town. The small alleys are rush with Scooters, big four-wheel drive vehicles all scrambling for space with pedestrians.

Several houses in this town still don the wooden carved classic doors that have been gazetted as cultural.

At the Long used Slave Market, we stop, where the Anglican church now stands with its inverted columns, statues of the slaves and the altar where the slaves were laced and across from the tree beneath where Dr Livingstone is cremated - he waged an untiring war against the ruthless trafficking of slaves.

As the sunsets and dusk sets in, we stroll out of the Aged fort which was erected from the ruins of what was the Portuguese church and into Forodhani Square.

The lawns were laid out early in the 20th century (1935) to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V and the attractive fountain and seats were put up to remember the silver jubilee of Seyyid Khalifa bin Hamud in December 1936.

As the sunsets in the horizon under the blues of the seashore guests take delight in the spicy essence of the Zanzibar island feasting on seafood and fresh juice.

The epoch of the sultans ended with the revolution of 1964.

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