The Old Customs House stands directly on the shore opposite the old dhow harbour, a two-storey coral-stone building completed in 1895. For thirty years it was the chokepoint of the East African coastal trade: every elephant tusk and rubber bale arriving from the interior caravan routes and every bale of cotton or sugar leaving for Zanzibar passed through the doors and across the bonded warehouses behind.
The building is partly restored and now houses a small Department of Antiquities office and a few exhibits on the caravan trade. The real attraction is the building itself and its position — the carved doorways are pure Swahili-coast architecture, and standing in front you look out over the same beach where the dhows beached for nearly two centuries.