Dar es Salaam
— — the haven of peace, by name.
Not only on a wall.
“On the Swahili coast, where the dhows still leave at dawn for Zanzibar and the ferries leave on the hour. Kivukoni fish market opens before sunrise. The name comes from the Arabic for haven of peace, though the city itself is the largest in Tanzania and rarely quiet. The light off the Indian Ocean is its own thing. The mango trees hold most of the shade.
Dar es Salaam, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Dar es Salaam sits on the Indian Ocean coast of Tanzania, on a natural harbour formed at the mouth of the Msimbazi River. The city was founded in 1865 by Sultan Majid bin Said of Zanzibar, who named it Bandar-ul-Salaam, the haven of peace. The metropolitan population today is above seven million, making it the largest city in East Africa. It served as the colonial capital under German East Africa and then under British administration before Tanzanian independence in 1961.
The harbour faces north into Msasani Bay and east toward Zanzibar, about twenty-five nautical miles offshore. Wooden dhows still work the coast under lateen sails, the rig the Swahili coast has used for a thousand years. Ferries leave the Kivukoni Front several times an hour for Kigamboni and once or twice a day for Stone Town. The fish market on the waterfront unloads its catch before sunrise, tuna and kingfish and prawns and octopus, and runs until the morning trade is finished.
The climate is equatorial and humid, the temperature steady in the high twenties Celsius year through. Two rainy seasons cross the calendar: the long rains from March into May, and the short rains in November. Between them, the air holds the smell of charcoal smoke, sea salt, frangipani, and roasting maize. Mango and flame trees line the older streets; their shade is the city's real architecture. Dawn breaks fast at this latitude, and the heat builds quickly after.