[Part 3/3] The Great Zimbabwe Ruins - A 600 Year Old Ancient City

I took a tour ride to one of the oldest and UNESCO recognized ancient city; The Great Zimbabwe Ruins. Great Zimbabwe was a city in the south-eastern hills of the modern country of Zimbabwe, near Masvingo. It was settled from 1000 AD, and served as the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe from the 13th century. It is the largest stone structure in precolonial Southern Africa. Major construction on the city began in the 11th century until the 15th century, and it was abandoned in the 16th or 17th century. The edifices were erected by ancestors of the Shona people. The stone city spans an area of 7.22 square kilometres and could have housed up to 18,000 people at its peak, giving it a population density of approximately 2,500 inhabitants per square kilometre. The Zimbabwe state centred on it likely covered 50,000 km² (19,000 sq mi). It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The site of Great Zimbabwe is composed of the Hill Complex, the Valley Complex, and the Great Enclosure (constructed at different times), and contained area for commoner housing within the perimeter walls. There is disagreement on the functions of the complexes among scholars. Some consider them to have been residences for the royals and elites at different periods of the site, while others infer them to have had separate functions. The Great Enclosure, with its 11m (36 ft) high dry stone walls (that is, constructed without mortar), was built during the 13th and 14th centuries, and likely served as the royal residence, with demarcated public spaces for rituals. The first confirmed visits by Europeans were in the late 19th century, with investigations of the site starting in 1871. Great Zimbabwe and surrounding sites were looted by European antiquarians between the 1890s and 1920s. Some later studies of the monument were controversial, as the white government of Rhodesia pressured archaeologists to deny its construction by black Africans. Its African origin only became consensus by the 1950s. Great Zimbabwe has since been adopted as a national monument by the Zimbabwean government, and the modern independent state was named after it. The word great distinguishes the site from the many smaller ruins, known as "zimbabwes", spread across the Zimbabwe Highveld. There are around 200 such sites in Southern Africa, such as Bumbusi in Zimbabwe and Manyikeni in Mozambique, with monumental, mortarless walls. In the 14th century, Great Zimbabwe ruins was the principal city of a major state extending over the gold-rich plateaux; its population exceeded 10,000 inhabitants. About 1450, the capital was abandoned because the hinterland could no longer furnish food for the overpopulated city and because of deforestation. The resulting migration benefited Khami, which became the most influential city in the region, but signaled waning political power. When in 1505 the Portuguese settled in Sofala, the region was divided between the rival powers of the kingdoms of Torwa and Mwene-Mutapa. Archaeological excavations have revealed glass beads and porcelain from China and Persia, and gold and Arab coins from Kilwa which testify to the extent of long-standing trade with the outer world. Other evidence, including potsherds and ironware, gives a further insight to the property’s socio-economic complexity and about farming and pastoral activities. A monumental granite cross, located at a traditionally revered and sacred spiritual site, also illustrates community contact with missionaries. #africatourism #greatzimbabwe #ruins #masvingo #zimbabwe