Hamamni Persian Baths, Persian bathhouse in Stone Town, Tanzania

Hamamni Persian Baths occupies a stone building in Stone Town whose stained white plaster facade carries a sign reading "HAMAMNI BATHS" and "PRIVATE SCHOOL OF BATHING". Inside, the complex held hot and cold baths, latrines, shaving rooms and a restaurant, with hot water supplied through underground aqueducts. Shirazi architects directed the construction.

The facility was built in the second half of the 19th century and operated until the 1920s. Architects brought Persian building techniques to the island, showing the trade connections between East Africa and the Middle East at that time.

The name Hamamni means "the place of the baths", and the whole Stone Town neighbourhood now carries it. Men and women bathed at separate hours, women in the morning and men in the afternoon, and the shaving rooms served both. The Shirazi architects who built the complex came from Persia, which gave the baths their "Persian" name.

Parts of the original complex can be visited, while other sections today serve as residential spaces and are not open to the public. It helps to check in advance which areas are currently open, as availability can change.

The "Persian" in the name refers to the Shirazi architects commissioned to build the baths, not to a Persian origin of the site. The neighbourhood around the building is itself called Hamamni, from the Arabic and Persian word for a bathhouse.