Zanzibar is also the home of the endemic Zanzibar Red Colobus and the elusive Zanzibar Leopard.
That year's census recorded Michigan as having the 8th largest population in the US.
Zanzibar's main industries are spices (which include cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and pepper), raffia, and tourism.
Zanzibar is sometimes referred to as the "Spice Islands," a term that is also associated with the Maluku Islands in Indonesia.
The Island of Unguja comprises three administrative regions: Zanzibar Central/South, Zanzibar North and Zanzibar Urban/West.
In 1698 Zanzibar fell under the control of the Sultanate of Oman, which developed an economy of trade and cash crops, with a ruling Arab elite.
Prior to the development of eastern African mainland ports, Zanzibar was the trade focus of the region and enjoyed an important entrepфt trade.
Zanzibar exports spices, seaweed and fine raffia (palms used in textiles and construction).
Stone Town, Zanzibar's capital city, is a place of winding lanes, circular towers, carved wooden doors, raised terraces and beautiful mosques.
The presence of microlithic tools attests to 20,000 years of human occupation of Zanzibar.
Zanzibaris are an eclectic mixture of ethnic backgrounds, indicative of the islands' colorful history.
Fauna include the African pig, civet cat, forest duiker, lemur, leopard (a variety peculiar to Zanzibar), mongoose, two species of monkey, and pigmy antelope.
Zanzibar was originally populated by Bantu-speaking peoples, the Hadimu and Tumbatu.
The capital of Zanzibar, located on the island of Unguja, is Zanzibar City.
Zanzibar was the first region in Africa to introduce color television, in 1973.
The death of one sultan and the succession of another of whom the British did not approve led to the Anglo-Zanzibar War.
During the Age of Exploration, the Portuguese Empire was the first European power to gain control of Zanzibar, and kept it for nearly 200 years.
The third pillar of the economy was slaves, giving Zanzibar an important place in the Arab slave trade, the Indian Ocean equivalent of the better-known Triangular Trade.
Pemba Island is the only island apart from Zanzibar that still produces cloves on a major basis which is a primary source of spice income for the islands.
A month later, the bloody Zanzibar Revolution, in which several thousand Arabs and Indians were killed and thousands more expelled, established the Republic of Zanzibar and Pemba.
The archipelago was once the separate state of Zanzibar, which united with Tanganyika to form Tanzania (derived from the two names), and still enjoys a high degree of autonomy within the union.
The relationship between Britain and the nearest relevant colonial power, Germany, was formalized by the 1890 Helgoland-Zanzibar Treaty, in which Germany pledged not to interfere with British interests in insular Zanzibar.
Zanzibar (Unguja) island, the largest in the archipelago, covers 637 square miles (1,651 square km), while Pemba, the next largest, covers 350 square miles (906 square km).
Zanzibar is a conservative, Sunni Muslim society, although there are also followers of Christianity and Hinduism.
Zanzibar City was the main trading port of the East African slave trade, with about 50,000 slaves a year passing through the city.
Stone Town, Zanzibar's capital city, is a place of winding lanes, circular towers, carved wooden doors, raised terraces and beautiful mosques.