Maruhubi Palace Ruins

Maruhubi Palace was built between 1880 and 1882 by Sultan Barghash, the third Busaidi sultan of Zanzibar, on a site just a few steps from the beach about four kilometres north of Zanzibar Town. Barghash used it to house his wife and up to a hundred concubines, while he himself lived separately in a palace in town. A fire destroyed the palace in 1899, leaving behind the tall stone columns that once supported a wooden balcony encircling the upper floor. The old Persian-style bathhouse also survives, with separate bathing chambers for the women's quarters and for the Sultan himself still visible among the ruins and gardens.