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- A Swahili door or Zanzibari door (Swahili Mlango wa Kiswahili) is a door that was developed in the Swahili coast during the Middle Ages and peaked in the 19th century. The door is usually the first and foremost key element of Swahili architecture and was the historically first item that was built before the rest of the home. The oldest doors are found along with the East African coast from Mozambique Island to the northern coast of Kenya especially in older Swahili cities and towns such as Bagamoyo, Mikindani, Mombasa, Malindi, Lamu, Tanga and Zanzibar. The highest concentration of remaining doors is in Zanzibar city. The largest of doors with the most elaborate of carvings are found in Zanzibar city. The doors were considered a mark of status and prestige for wealthy Swahili merchant families especially in the old sections of Zanzibar attaining impressive dimensions in terms of size and carving details. Further away from the old city center the style and elaboration diminish into much simpler Swahili doors. The geographical distribution of the door is not limited to the coast especially in Tanzania, the doors can be found in many towns like Tabora, Moshi and Ujiji on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. This transfer was due to the caravan trade routes during the 19th century as the Arab and Swahili merchants established more recent settlements in the Tanzanian interior to facilitate the trade of ivory and enslaved people for the global market taking their doors carving tradition to build the homes of the rich traders. The origins of the door style are considered to be from the Swahili craftsmen and were frequently exported to the mostly treeless Arabian peninsula as a handful of Swahili doors are seen in Muscat, the capital of Oman as Swahili craftsmen were commissioned by Sultan Sayyid Bargash in the 19th century to carve the doors for his palaces. (en)
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- A Swahili door or Zanzibari door (Swahili Mlango wa Kiswahili) is a door that was developed in the Swahili coast during the Middle Ages and peaked in the 19th century. The door is usually the first and foremost key element of Swahili architecture and was the historically first item that was built before the rest of the home. The oldest doors are found along with the East African coast from Mozambique Island to the northern coast of Kenya especially in older Swahili cities and towns such as Bagamoyo, Mikindani, Mombasa, Malindi, Lamu, Tanga and Zanzibar. The highest concentration of remaining doors is in Zanzibar city. The largest of doors with the most elaborate of carvings are found in Zanzibar city. The doors were considered a mark of status and prestige for wealthy Swahili merchant fam (en)
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