Coordinates: 5°12′52″S39°39′59″E / 5.214559°S 39.666510°E
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are often chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position and two or three of the numbers represent a horizontal position; alternatively, a geographic position may be expressed in a combined three-dimensional Cartesian vector. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation. To specify a location on a plane requires a map projection.
Ras Mkumbuu is a long narrow peninsula on the central west coast of Pemba Island, one of the two main islands of Tanzania's Zanzibar Archipelago. The town of Chake-Chake, one of the island's main population centres, is located immediately to the south of it on Chake-Chake Bay. The peninsula stretches due west for 12 kilometres, tapering to only a few tens of metres wide at its narrowest point. The peninsula, along with Fundo Island to the north, forms part of a natural breakwater which provides a calm harbour for the northern town of Wete.
Pemba Island, is an island forming part of the Zanzibar Archipelago, lying within the Swahili Coast in the Indian Ocean.
Tanzania officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in eastern Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands at the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to the south; Zambia to the southwest; and Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west. Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest mountain, is in north-eastern Tanzania.
The Zanzibar Archipelago consists of several islands lying off the coast of East Africa south of the Somali sea. The archipelago is also known as the Spice Islands. There are four main islands, three primary islands with human populations, a fourth coral island that serves as an essential breeding ground for seabirds, plus a number of smaller islets that surround them and an isolated tiny islet.
Ras Mkumbuu was an important site in Pemba's history, being the site one of the island's most important early settlements, Qanbalu, which is now a ruin. The small village of Ngagu is now the peninsula's main settlement.
Ngagu is a village on the Zanzibari island of Pemba. It is located at the end of a narrow peninsula known as Ras Mkumbuu, which lies on the west coast immediately to the north of Chake-Chake Bay. The town is located close to the Quanbalu Ruins. Possibly dating from as early as the eighth century, these are the remains of a major trading centre which may have been Africa's oldest Muslim town.
