Towns & Cities A Guide to Tanzania
ARUSHA
Located in the north of Tanzania, in the shadow of Mount Meru, Arusha is the safari capital of the country. Tourists usually overnight here before their safari around the Northern Circuit. Built by the Germans as a centre of colonial administration, Arusha is now one of the country’s most prosperous towns. The site for the United Nations Criminal Tribunal and the headquarters for the tripartite Commission for East African
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co-operation, Arusha is also the centre for the trading of Tanzanite, a rare gemstone only found in Tanzania. The National Natural History Museum, with its collection of antiquities demonstrating Tanzania’s natural heritage, is housed in an old German Fort in the centre of Arusha while the nearby Cultural Heritage centre and its adjacent, four storey Art Gallery are also well worth a visit.
BAGAMOYO
Bagamoyo is a centre for dhow sailboat building on the Tanzanian coast. A quiet village with a few German colonial buildings still standing, it was once one the most important trading ports on the East African coast, and the penultimate stop of slave and ivory caravans travelling on foot from Lake Tanganyika on their way to Zanzibar. Missionaries active in abolishing the slave trade made Bagamoyo a centre for their
