Chapter 1 explores the emergence of port-towns on Lake Tanganyika’s shores. It uses archival and archaeological sources to situate this history within the broader contexts of ‘emporia’ in the Indian Ocean World over the longue durée, but with particular reference to transitions that occurred in the nineteenth century. Despite being adapted to their own micro-environments and peoples, the organisation and architecture of Lake Tanganyika’s nineteenth-century port-towns owed much to patterns that transcended parts of the wider Indian Ocean World. Such patterns are observable in terms of architecture, layout, and engagement with the water-facing environment.