Zanzibar & Coast
Bagamoyo
A weathered Swahili town where the caravan routes met the sea.
UNESCO World Heritage Site — Not inscribed. The Historic Town of Bagamoyo is on Tanzania’s UNESCO World Heritage tentative list, meaning it has been put forward by the country for possible future nomination.
- Altitude
- At sea level on the Indian Ocean coast
- Established
- A major caravan terminus and port through the nineteenth century; capital of German East Africa from 1887 until the administration moved to Dar es Salaam in 1891
- Best for
- Swahili and caravan-trade history, old-town walks and a quiet coastal stop near Dar es Salaam
For much of the nineteenth century Bagamoyo was where the great caravan routes from Lake Tanganyika and beyond reached the Indian Ocean. Ivory and enslaved people came down to the coast here and were shipped across to Zanzibar; trade goods went inland. Explorers and missionaries used it as their jumping-off point, and in 1887 the Germans made it the administrative centre of German East Africa — although the capital moved to Dar es Salaam only a few years later, in 1891, which is a large part of why Bagamoyo is quiet today.
The old town is a compact grid of coral-rag buildings, some restored and many not, with carved doors, crumbling arcades, the old customs house and the harbour front where dhows are still built and repaired. A short way north, the Catholic mission founded in 1868 — the first on the Tanzanian mainland — has a museum whose collection covers the mission’s work with freed slaves and the caravan era in unusually direct terms.
A few kilometres south lie the Kaole ruins: a pair of ancient mosques and a field of pillar tombs, the earliest generally dated to around the thirteenth century, from a Swahili settlement that flourished long before Bagamoyo itself. Bagamoyo is on Tanzania’s tentative list for UNESCO World Heritage status — it has been put forward but is not inscribed. The town is an easy half-day or overnight trip from Dar es Salaam, and a gentle way to start or end a coastal itinerary.
Highlights
- The old town: coral-rag buildings, carved doors, the customs house and the harbour front
- The Catholic mission founded in 1868, with a museum covering the caravan and slave-trade era
- The Kaole ruins — thirteenth-century mosques and Swahili pillar tombs
- Dhow builders still working on the beach with hand tools
- A long, quiet stretch of coast just north of Dar es Salaam
- The Bagamoyo arts college and its resident musicians and dancers
- Easy to combine with Saadani National Park further up the coast
Things to do
- Guided walking tour of the old town and harbour front
- Visit to the mission church, museum and cemetery
- Visit to the Kaole ruins with a local guide
- Watch dhow building and repair on the beach
- Beach time and seafood at one of the small hotels along the coast
- Arts and music performances at the college, when scheduled
Wildlife you might see
Wildlife is wild — these are the species people hope for here, never a promise.
- Green and hawksbill turtles nesting on some beaches nearby, seasonally
- Colobus and vervet monkeys in the coastal forest patches
- Crab plovers, herons and waders on the tidal flats
- Fish eagles and kingfishers along the creeks and mangroves
- Reef fish and corals on boat trips offshore
- Dolphins occasionally seen from boats along the coast (never guaranteed)
Planning your visit
- Best time to go
- Roughly June to October is driest and most comfortable, with late December to February also good though hotter. The long rains (roughly March to May) bring heavy showers and can make the unpaved streets and the Kaole track muddy.
- Getting there
- Typically around one and a half to two and a half hours by road north of Dar es Salaam, depending on traffic leaving the city. It can also be reached from Saadani National Park to the north, and fits naturally as a stop on the way between Dar es Salaam and the coast further up.
- Good to know
- Bagamoyo is on Tanzania’s UNESCO tentative list — it has been nominated but is not an inscribed World Heritage Site.
- Many old-town buildings are private homes or unstable ruins; stay with your guide and do not enter them.
- The town is predominantly Muslim — please dress modestly, covering shoulders and knees.
- Separate small entry fees apply at the mission museum and the Kaole ruins.
- Ask before photographing people, particularly at the mission and around the fishing beach.
