This week’s featured UNESCO World Heritage site lies on an island off the coast of Tanzania. The Stone Town of Zanzibar is the old heart of Zanzibar, built when it was an ancient trading town.

Zanzibar is located on the island of Unguja. According to Wikipedia, people have been living here for almost three centuries, but the stone buildings that make the old town so distinctive today date back to the 1830s.

The old town consists of large stone houses, mosques and bazaars, all connected by a maze of narrow alleys. Walking is essential here, as most of the alleyways are too skinny to take a car down. One of the most interesting architectural features of the city is the elaborate doors on many of the houses.  The wealthy Arab traders and businessmen who originally owned the houses competed to see whose house had the grandest, most elaborately decorated door.

Before Africa was colonized by Europeans, the city was one of the trading centers between Africa and Asia. UNESCO calls it “outstanding material manifestation of cultural fusion and harmonization.”

To visit Zanzibar’s Old Stone Town, you will need a Tanzanian visa. To apply for the visa, you’ll need the following documents:

• 1 copy of your Tanzanian visa application form
• 2 passport-sized photos
• A copy of a  recent statement from your bank.
• An international yellow fever vaccination certificate.
• A travel itinerary OR a bank statement showing a minimum balance of $2,000.
• If you’ll be visiting Zanzibar as part of an organized tour, you need proof that you have paid the tour operator in full.

If you’re planning a trip to Africa, RushMyTravelVisa can help you research your visa requirements to make sure that you have all of the travel documents you need for your trip. As part of our services, we also provide clear, easy to understand instructions to walk you through the application process, step by step. Finally, we submit your application to the appropriate embassy or consulate for the fastest processing available.

Apply for your Tanzanian visa today!

Tags: Tanzania, Tanzanian visa, UNESCO World Heritage Sites

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 26th, 2009 at 10:55 pm and is filed under World Heritage Site of the Week. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.