Christ Church Cathedral

This guide to Christ Church Cathedral in Zanzibar City opens on a striking claim, that kneeling at the altar rail means kneeling on a whipping post from the courtyard that was once the largest slave market in East Africa. It follows Sultan Barghash's closure of that market in eighteen seventy-three under British pressure, and Bishop Edward Steere, the Anglican abolitionist who bought the ground and began building on the same spot that Christmas Day, deliberately placing the altar over the post. It also traces a crucifix carved from Zambian wood tied to David Livingstone's burial, and the years architect C.F. Hayward's crew spent raising the cathedral. Look for where the courtyard's old boundaries meet the church walls around you.