Beit al-Ajaib (House of Wonders), East Africa's first building with a lift and electric light
Beit al-Ajaib (Casa de las Maravillas), primer edificio con ascensor y luz eléctrica de África oriental
- Date
- c. 1883-1890 · confidence medium
- Place
- Stone Town, Zanzibar, Tanzania
- Credited to
- Sultan Barghash bin Said
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
Barghash's ceremonial palace in Stone Town, with a great courtyard of cast-iron columns and an elevator, regarded as the first in East Africa. It reflected the sultanate's openness to European industrial techniques.
It was built about 1883 with British engineering; dates for the electrical installation and the lift vary between sources and the 'first in East Africa' claim is repeated without independent verification.
What it led to
- introduction of electricity and lifts on the Swahili coast
- hybrid Swahili-Indian-European architecture of Stone Town
- a symbol of sultanate power before the British protectorate