The Mangapwani caves are located about 20km north of Zanzibar Town along the coast. There are actually two locations. The first is a large natural cave with a freshwater pool, supposedly used in connection with the slave trade.

North of here is the sobering slave cave, a dank, dark cell that was used as a holding pen to hide slaves after the legal trade was abolished in the late 19th century.

Beit el-Ajaib - home to the Zanzibar National Museum of History & Culture is one of the largest structures in Zanzibar. It was built in 1883 by Sultan Barghash (r 1870-88) as a ceremonial palace. After British naval bombardment in 1896 it was rebuilt and used as a residential palace for the Sultans and later the headquarters of the CCM (Tanzania's ruling party).

Inside are exhibits on the dhow culture of the Indian Ocean, Swahili civilisation and 19th-century Zanzibar, plus smaller displays on kangas (printed cotton wraparound, incorporating a Swahili proverb, worn by women) and the history of Stone Town. There's also a life-sized mtepe (a traditional Swahili sailing vessel made without nails, the planks held together only with coconut fibres and wooden pegs).

Just north of the Beit el-Ajaib, is Beit el-Sahel. This palace served as the sultan's residence until 1964 when the dynasty was overthrown. Now it's a museum devoted to the era of the Zanzibar sultanate. The ground floor displays details of the formative period of the sultanate from 1828 to 1870.

There is also memorabilia of Princess Salme, a Zanzibari princess who eloped with a German to Europe, and later wrote an autobiography. The exhibits on the 2nd floor focus on the period of affluence from 1870 to 1896, during which modern amenities such as piped water and electricity were introduced to Zanzibar under Sultan Barghash. The 3rd floor consists of the modest living quarters of the last sultan, Khalifa bin Haroub (r 1911-60), and his two wives, each of whom clearly had very different tastes in furniture. Outside is the Makusurani graveyard, where some of the sultans are buried.