Laser Scanning Shihrazad'S Baths: 1001 Tales Of Zanzibar Nights

This article presents the first archaeological survey of the ornate Kidichi baths on Zanzibar. The baths were built either for or by Shihrazad, a wife of Zanzibar's nineteenth-century ruler Said bin Sultan (1806-56). Laser scanning the ornate plaster stucco clarified two inscriptions, the precise meaning of which had been lost. By combining archaeological survey results with historical research and a translation of the inscriptions, a new narrative is presented in which the main protagonist is, unusually, female. Her story raises a host of questions relating to heritage, gender, religion and politics in modern-day Africa and beyond.