Zanzibar’s 7 best museums

Marvels of memory revealing the island’s multicultural soul and local treasures:

• Freddie Mercury – Shy rock star

The sea breeze along Kenyatta Road carries faint echoes of “Bohemian Rhapsody.” The unassuming 50s style Stone Town home, now bookable as holiday apartments by the Tembo Hotel, is where Farrokh Bulsara spent his boyhood before becoming Freddie Mercury, Queen’s electrifying frontman. Step past the ticket desk and into a world of photographs, rare performance footage, flamboyant stage outfits, a grand piano, of course, and letters revealing the shy Zanzibari schoolboy behind the rock god. The museum opened in 2019, 18 years after Mercury died of AIDS at the age of 45, and has become one of the most sought after Instagram-able locations (main photo) in the historic quarter. Born 1946, the rock star spent most of his childhood in Zanzibar, His father, a Parsi and Zoroastrian by religion, had immigrated from India. He worked as a cashier at the High Court; the family being a typical example of multicultural Zanzibar. From the island’s spice-scented air to London’s neon glare, the exhibits trace a journey of ambition, identity, and unstoppable music. The playlist? Naturally – pure Queen.

Freddie Mercury Museum

Kenyatta Road, Stone Town

Daily, 9 am – 6 pm

• Spice Route – Interactive treasure hunt

How did Zanzibar become the spice island in the 19th century, its plantations fueling fortunes and luring traders from Europe, Arabia, and India? This ultra-modern museum, opened in August by Turkish entrepreneur Hatice Assalam living in Zanzibar, makes the entire global spice trade transparent. Presenting a centuries-old trade in the most immersive fashion makes the museum really special. It is meant to excite not only tourists, but locals, school classes and everybody keen on learning more about the global history of spices. Visitors meet historical figures like Vasco da Gama brought to life by costumed guides (photo). From Indian bazaars to Saharan camel routes, visitors of all ages find themselves treasure hunting through time.

The Spice Route Museum

Hamamni Street 454, Stone Town

Daily, 9 am – 5 pm

• Sultans’ Graveyard – 200 years reloaded

Sunlight filters through mango trees, dappling the moss-covered tombs of Zanzibar’s former rulers. The small, new museum behind the presently closed Palace museum includes the freshly painted graveyard where nine of Zanzibar’s former rulers are buried. The new, little known tourist highlight is part of the “Make-Zanzibar-beautiful-again”-campaign driven by Stone Town conservator Ali Said Bakar. Financed by Oman, which ruled Zanzibar for 200 years, a modern exhibition in an air-conditioned little annex elaborates on the life and death of 12 sultans of Zanzibar. Intricate Arabic calligraphy mark tombstones (photo), information panels detail tales of maritime power. Now restored, it’s a solemn, beautiful place, an oasis of calm in Stone Town.

Sultans’ Graveyard Museum

Behind Palace Museum, Stone Town

Daily, 8 am – 5 pm

• Princess Salme – Princess, rebel& mum

The rustle of silk skirts and the scratch of a quill seem to linger here. Born in 1844, Princess Salme—later Emily Ruete—was a sultan’s daughter who fled to marry a German merchant, eventually writing the first known autobiography by an Arab woman. The museum is set in the evocative Emerson on Hurumzi Hotel and features family portraits, period furniture, and letters that reveal her wit, independence, and political insight. It’s a window into the world of a widow with three children who defied her era’s rules and never stopped bridging cultures. A woman who was always good for provocation. The museum’s curator, Said el-Gheithy, also takes visitors around town on a “Salme promenade” sharing memorable episodes of her life.

Princess Salme Museum

Emerson on Hurumzi Hotel

Mon – Sat, 10 am – 4 pm

• Natural History – Dusty but heart-warming

It feels like stepping into 1925, when the museum first opened its wooden shutters – with the dust on the shelves having accumulated since then. Glass cabinets hold preserved fish and coral. A stuffed leopard (photo) proves that these animals once roamed around on the isle. Old maps show Zanzibar’s changing coastline, a few specimens of butterflies still cling to the wall. You could be tempted to call the time-ridden collection poor, but you may settle for finding it heart-touching with its warnings about overfishing and mangrove loss. Generations of Zanzibari school kids have seen their first turtle (alive and outside) and snakes (dead and in bottles) here. The museum was recently overhauled but the creak of the floorboards is still part of the experience.

Natural History Museum Zanzibar

Creek Road, Stone Town

Mon – Sat, 9 am -5 pm

• Kibweni Palace – Inside royal living rooms

North of Stone Town, the whitewashed Kibweni Palace gazes out to sea as it has for nearly two centuries. Built as Sultan Seyyid Said’s summer retreat in 1915, its rooms once echoed with royal banquets and political councils. Today, exhibits include carved Zanzibari furniture, the living rooms of several generations of the Sultans’ dynasty, Persian rugs, and diplomatic gifts from around the world – including an original oil painting of Empress Sissy of Austria. As long as the historic House of Wonder and the Palace Museum remain closed, Kibweni is being used to showcase Zanzibar’s collected treasures. Horse stables and the fine location (photo) are part of the museum’s allure: A veranda offers a view of the same waters the sultan’s dhows once sailed.

Kibweni Palace Museum

Kibweni, 4 km north of Stone Town

Daily, 8 am – 5 pm

• Tanzanite – Rarer than diamonds

A hush falls as you enter this free museum; deep-blue gems gleam beneath spotlights like droplets of midnight sky. Tanzanite, rarer than diamonds and found only in Tanzania’s Mererani Hills, was first discovered in 1967 and named by Tiffany & Co. The tiny but attractive museum offers a learning journey about the stone’s geological origin during which visitors find themselves in a cave-like replica mine (photo). The exhibition explains the stone’s shifting hues (blue in sunlight, violet under lamplight), and displays some jewellery alongside raw crystals and mining gear – of course you may buy yourself a Tanzanite ring in an adjacent shop, or in dozen others in town. The museum is a lesson in geology, economics, and human obsession with beauty.

Tanzanite Museum Zanzibar

Shangani Street, Stone Town

Daily, 9 am- 8 pm, free entrance