The present Tanzania, and more precisely Kilwa and Zanzibar, were marine places among Europe, Asia and Africa since Vth century A.D. It has been found Greek, Persian and Roman establishments there. Kisiwani and Songo Mnara became two key commerce points in antiquity.
From XIth century A.D., as a result of the Crusades, Europeans demanded certain products that they were customary thanks to their contact with East. The route used to bring those products to Europe was well-Known like spice trade. It started from the Indian Ocean, it arrived at the Persian Gulf and then it continued to Alexandria, Antioquia and Constantinople (today Istanbul). This last city was used as connection between East and West and to arrange important commercial transactions.
When Constantinople felt into Turkish power in 1453, the communication between Europe and Asia was cut and among the Europeans arose the urgent necessity of finding other routes in order to obtain commercial wealth from East. The Portuguese navigators settled an alternative route by sea following the African coast.
Both ports were located in the Indian Ocean, they represent a gold, silver, pearls, perfumes and porcelains commercial trace and they has been valued as key points in the older commercial routes, like the famous Zanzibar island.
The cities that conserve vestiges from XIII-XIVth century A.D. make up Perfume History and they belong to the spice trade. They pertain to an islands group that are settled nearby the coast. They provided spices that were used and developed as fragrance sources in Europe by alchemists from XIIth century to the end of XVIth century A.D. It is unthinkable to understand Perfume History without taking them into account. These small islands are located in front of Tanzania coast and they have represented signs of the powerful spice trade during thousands of years.
Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara are threatened by the marine erosion, the lack of maintenance that can cause the collapse of buildings and finally by an inadequate management of the population explosion.
Kilwa Kisiwani and Songo Mnara ruins are located in front of Tanzania coast, they have been registered in the World-Wide Heritage List in Danger today, as UNESCO has reported.
Portugal has offered its collaboration for the preservation of these places to Tanzania.
The twenty-eighth session of the World-Wide Heritage Committee was reunited in Suzhou (China) until July 7, it included with these two sites a total of four monuments in the Heritage List in Danger.
Also two places more were comprised: the Colony cathedral from Germany that is threatened by the surrounding constructions and Bam’s cultural landscape from Iran. They entered simultaneously as a part of the World-Wide Patrimony List and the World-Wide Patrimony List in Danger
