Changuu Pier

About 30 minutes by boat from Stone Town lies Changuu Island, also known as Prison Island. A slight misnomer, as the ruined buildings were never used to house prisoners, as was the original intention of the architects.

The island was once used by an Arab slave trader to contain the feistier, defiant and freedom-seeking slaves brought from the African mainland. To prevent their escape before shipping them to the Arabian purchasers, or for auctioning in Zanzibar's slave market, the slaves were dumped on Changuu, from where they were unlikely to attempt escape. In 1893, Mr. Lloyd Mathews, under the orders of the British administrators built a prison but the concept never became a reality. In fact, it ended up being used as a quarantine center for the yellow fever epidemics that once raged through the region.

The Giant Tortoises are Changuu Island's most famous inhabitants, and are to be found nowhere else in East Africa. Not indigenous to continental Africa, the original tortoises were brought from Aldabra in the Seychelles in an effort to extend the Tortoise conservation efforts. Aldabra is famous for harboring endemic and rare marine life species, and along with the Galapagos Islands, it is the one of the worlds few places where giant tortoises exist.

The tortoises have been living in the Indian Ocean islands, and probably Aldabra, for over 100 million years but their numbers have fallen to such critically low levels that they are now classified as endangered. The adult tortoises of Prison Island are producing the next generations, and the future is looking good for the continued survival of the tortoises.

Apart from the dappled shadows of the island, it's lovely to swim or snorkel in the clear blue waters.