Old Fort of Zanzibar (Ngome Kongwe)

Ngome Kongwe (the Old Fort) was built in 1698-1701 by Busaidi Omani Arabs on Stone Town's seafront, on the site of an earlier Portuguese chapel whose remnants are still visible in the courtyard walls. Constructed to defend the island after the Omanis expelled the Portuguese, it repelled at least one Portuguese-Mazrui attack. It later served as a garrison and prison through the 19th century and as a terminus of the Zanzibar Railway from 1905 to 1928. A new guardhouse and, later, an amphitheatre (added in the 1990s) turned the fort into a cultural venue, and it is now headquarters of the Zanzibar International Film Festival.