Zanzibar Channel km south of Dar es Salaam. In 2015, the 29km solo swim across the Zanzibar Channel starting at the Pungume Sandbank was completed in 9 hrs 1 minute by Jean Craven (SA) , Robert Dunford (Kenya), Megan Harrington Johnson (SA), Samantha Whelpton (SA) and Emil Berning (SA) Zanzibar Channel The Zanzibar Channel is a strait in south-eastern Africa, separating the island of Unguja (also known as Zanzibar) from mainland Tanzania. The channel is 120 km long and 29-37 km wide, with depth varying from a few dozen metres (in the centre) to a few hundred metres to the north and
Sultanate of Zanzibar over the last of his dominions, Zanzibar. In 1698, Zanzibar became part of the overseas holdings of Oman after Saif bin Sultan, the Imam of Oman, defeated the Portuguese in Mombasa, in what is now Kenya. In 1832 or 1840, Omani ruler Said bin Sultan moved his court from Muscat to Stone Town on the island of Unguja (that is, Zanzibar Island). He established a ruling Arab elite and encouraged the development of clove plantations, using the island's slave labour. Zanzibar's commerce fell increasingly into the hands of traders from the Indian subcontinent, whom Said encouraged to settle on the