ZANZIBAR &
PEMBA ISLAND
GTA-GETTOGETHERADVENTURES
ZANZIBAR & PEMBA ISLAND
Zanzibar is a legendary archipelago in the Indian Ocean, 35 km off the coast of mainland Tanzania, just six degrees south of the Equator. Comprising the islands of Unguja and Pemba, along with a number of smaller isles and coral atolls, Zanzibar is one of Africa’s most enticing destinations, an exotic laid-back paradise, miles and miles of white sandy beaches and translucent turquoise warm waters.
Unguja (also referred to as Zanzibar) is the largest and most populated island of the archipelago. Unguja is a hilly island, about 85 kilometers long (north-south) and 30 kilometers wide (east-west) at its widest, with an overall area of about 1,666 square kilometers and separated from Tanzania mainland by the Zanzibar Channel. Surrounded by a number of small islets, with only two of them, Tumbatu and Uzi, being inhabited, the archipelagos population including Pemba island is in total just over 1 million.
Pemba Island, known as “The Green Island” in Arabic (الجزيرة الخضراء), is an island forming part of the Zanzibar Archipelago, lying within the Swahili Coast in the Indian Ocean.
With a land area of 988 square kilometers it is situated about 50 kilometers to the north of Unguja, the largest island of the archipelago. In 1964, Zanzibar was united with the former colony of Tanganyika to form Tanzania. It lies 50 kilometers east of mainland Tanzania, across the Pemba Channel. Together with Mafia Island (south of Unguja), these islands form the Spice Islands (not to be confused with the Maluku Islands of Indonesia).
