Freddie Mercury Tours

One of Zanzibar's most famous sons is Queen lead vocalist Freddie Mercury, born Faroukh Bulsara in 1946 in Stone Town to Parsee parents. He lived on the island until he was about eight years old, when he was sent off to India to boarding school. His family left Zanzibar in the wake of the 1964 revolution, never to return. There's no agreement as to which house or houses Freddie - he acquired the name while at school in India - and his family actually occupied, and several make the claim.

For anyone wanting to make a Mercury pilgrimage, two good places to start are the Zanzibar Gallery, with a gold plaque on the outside memorialising Mercury, and the popular Mercury's restaurant, which doesn't claim that he lived there, but capitalises on his name. Freddie Mercury died on 24 November 1991 in London of complications from AIDS.