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Great
Zimbabwe is a settlement of the ancestors of the Shona population. It is
built in the 13th and 14th century. With a area of
720 ha it is the largest archaeological site in Africa. In its high days
there lived about 40.000 people. It is completely African and they found
remains of foreign influences. |
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Great
Zimbabwe exists of the Great Enclosure (picture on the right), the Hill
Complex and the ruins in the valley.
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The
Great Enclosure is a great round stone building from 11 meters high and a
outline of 243 meters. It has no roof. It is the largest stone building of
the Middle Ages south of the Sahara. The Enclosure is a very large solid
stonewall build of millions stone with cement.
Within
the wall lived a rich family (probably a king). In the surroundings of the
Greta Enclosure there are a lot remains of smaller enclosures from less
important people. |
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The
Hill complex is the oldest building and is positioned on an 80-meter high
hill. From this hill you have a good look over the surroundings. They
build a 5-meter thick wall on top of the hill. There are some “balancing
rocks’ and they used those within the walls (or build the wall around
them). On these walls they found a few statues, which are the national
symbol nowadays. You can find a picture of that statue on the paper money,
the coins and in the museum. Like the Mona Lisa in Paris I find those
replica’s disappointing: a lot smaller than I though.
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15th century Great Zimbabwe was overcrowded and there was a shortage of
food. Some people decided to leave the complex and they wandered around
the country. One group of people build a new city at Khami near Bulawayo (see
later).
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The next day the sun was
shining and it was warm again: a perfect day to explore the ruins. Very
impressive those buildings, but was the use of the buildings? Why didn’t
they make a roof? There are a lot of different theories about this and
that’s why we made our own. Without a guide we walked around and
fantasise about the past. |
