Information About Dar es-Salaam Region

Dar es-Salaam (/ˌdɑːr ɛs səˈlɑːm/; from Arabic: دار السلام‎, romanized: Dār as-Salām, meaning: Place of Peace) is the largest city and former capital of Tanzania. It is the largest city in East Africa and the seventh-largest in Africa, with a population of 6,701,650. Located on the Swahili coast, Dar es-Salaam is an important economic centre and one of the fastest growing cities in the world.

Until 1974, Dar es-Salaam served as Tanzania's capital city, at which point the capital city commenced transferring to Dodoma, by order of then-president Julius Nyerere, which was officially completed in 1996. However, as of 2018, it remains a focus of central government bureaucracy, although this was in the process of fully moving to Dodoma. It is Tanzania's most prominent city in arts, fashion, media, music, film and television, and is a leading financial centre. The city is the leading arrival and departure point for most tourists who visit Tanzania, including the national parks for safaris and the islands of Unguja and Pemba.

It is the capital of the co-extensive Dar es-Salaam Region, which is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions and consists of five districts: Kinondoni in the north, Ilala in the centre, Ubungo and Temeke in the south and Kigamboni in the east across the Kurasini creek.

Dar es Salaam has two of the five museums comprising the National Museum of Tanzania consortium, namely the National Museum proper and the Makumbusho Cultural Centre & Village Museum. The National Museum is dedicated to the history of Tanzania; most notably, it exhibits some of the bones of Paranthropus boisei that were among the findings of Louis Leakey at Olduvai. The Makumbusho Cultural Centre & Village Museum, located in the outskirts of the city on the road to Bagamoyo, showcases traditional huts from 16 different Tanzanian ethnic groups. There are also examples of traditional cultivations, and traditional music and dance shows are held daily. In 2016, there was a breakthrough discovery in Northern Tanzania by a scientist, from the University of Dar es Salaam, of footprints thought to be of a hominid that predates Homo sapiens.

Close to the National Museum are also the botanical gardens, with tropical plants and trees.

There are beaches on the Msasani peninsula north of Dar es Salaam and in Kigamboni to the south. Trips to the nearby islands of the Dar es Salaam Marine Reserve are a popular daytrip from the city and a spot for snorkeling, swimming and sunbathing. Bongoyo Island can be reached by boat from the Msasani Slipway.