Whether it be rambling though the old Arabic and Swahili buildings in Zanzibar’s Stone Town, climbing down the sides of Tanzania’s Olduvai Gorge, the site of some of the oldest hominid remains on earth.

Or, there is exploring the graves of pirates on Madagascar’s east coast there is something of interest in Africa and its surrounding islands for historians of all types.

In South Africa the “Cradle of Humankind” matches, and perhaps surpasses Olduvai Gorge in the age and diversity of archaeological finds and the ruins at great Zimbabwe are well known for their precision building and evidence of trading societies that lived in the region in times gone by.

There are many guides who specialize in the history of east and Southern Africa. Some are generalists and others have a specific interest in perhaps the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 or the history of Arab trade routes along the African East Coast.