North Zanzibar

Nungwi has been a working fishing and boat-building village for centuries, and remains the beating heart of Zanzibar's traditional dhow industry. On the beach beneath the palms, craftsmen still shape ocean-going jahazi and ngalawa by hand from mango and teak, using techniques passed down the monsoon-trading generations without written plans.

For most of its history the far north was a remote corner of the island, its people living from the sea and from the coconut and fishing economy while Stone Town traded cloves and ivory. That isolation preserved a distinctly Swahili village culture, still visible in Nungwi's mosques, its natural coral aquarium of rescued turtles, and the lighthouse that has guided sailors around the point since colonial times.

Tourism arrived late but fast. From the 1990s the powder-white beaches of Nungwi and neighbouring Kendwa, which unusually stay deep enough to swim at all tides, drew backpackers and then resorts. Today the north coast is Zanzibar's busiest beach hub, yet dhows still race offshore at sunset and the boat-builders still hammer beneath the trees.