The name of one of the largest buildings in Stountaune built in a tropical Victorian style - Beit el-Ajaib, or House of Wonders .  It was designed by a certain Scottish marine engineer commissioned by the sultan in 1883 Bargasha .  For some time the house served as the residence of the Sultan .  But in 1896 a three-storey building has been the object of British bombing: the British did not want to Khalid bin Sultan Bargash took the throne after the death of Sultan Hamad (1893 - 1896) . After the war, the shortest in the history of Zanzibar, which lasted only 45 minutes (exactly as the British bombarded the palace), the sultan chose to surrender to the British . When the building was repaired, the next Sultan - Hamoud (1902 - 1911) - used the top floor as his residence, and after 1913 is the seat of government of Zanzibar . Beit el-Ajaib, it was not only the largest structure in the whole of Zanzibar, but also the first building in which there is electricity, water and even a lift .  Since the Zanzibar government began to hold its meetings elsewhere in Beit El Ajaib occasional exhibitions and parties, and recently opened a luxury restaurant .  Though on a memorial tablet at the entrance says that one day in this house is a museum of the history of Zanzibar and the Swahili civilization .     I can complement the description