House of Wonders

The House of Wonders (Beit al-Ajaib) is a former royal ceremonial palace on Mizingani Road in Stone Town, facing Forodhani Gardens, built in 1883 for Sultan Barghash bin Said. It was the first building in Zanzibar to have electricity and the first in East Africa to have an elevator. Damaged during the 1896 Anglo-Zanzibar War, it was rebuilt with a clock tower in 1897, later used as government offices, and converted into a museum after the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution. The building suffered a series of structural failures — a veranda collapse in 2012, a roof collapse in 2015, and a catastrophic collapse of its front facade and clock tower on 25 December 2020 during renovation work, which killed two workers. As of this research (August 2026) it remains closed to the public while reconstruction continues, supported by funding and restoration expertise from Oman's Ministry of Heritage and Tourism, with no confirmed reopening date.