Great Zimbabwe - unbelievably beautiful ruins

Constructed from 9th centruy onwards, the city known as Great Zimbabwe today, was a medieval city in the south-eastern hills of ZImbabwe.  It lies near Lake Mutirikwi and the town of Masvingo. It became the capital of the kingdom of ZImbabwe.

It covered an area of about 7.22 Square Kilometers and could house upto 18,000 peope. It comprised  of 3 different areas:

The Valley Complex (probably for the citizens)

The Great Enclosure (probably for the king)

and 

The HIll Complex (probably a temple)

It is believed that Great ZImbabwe housed a royal palace. 

The walls and towers were constructed without motar ie were just dry stone on top of each other. The walls and towers rose upto 11 meters in height.  

The constructon was probably made by the ancestores of the Shona in Zimbabwe namely by members of the Gokomere culture. 

Some say that the shona sculpture had its beginnings here.

 Chess set by unknown Shona Sculptor 

This might be because of the fact that 8 Zimbabwe Birds were found and probably were designed to be placed in the HIll Complex of Greater ZImbabwe. Other artifacts including figurines carved in Soapstone were also found.  It is known that Shona sculpture developed from the eleventh century, peaking around the 13th century.  It slowly declined until it again became important around the middle of the 1900's. Most suclptures wer made originally from soapstone which is s sedimentary stone and is soft.  As soap stone tends to crumble, other stones slowly took over in importance and serpentine as well as verdite became the stones of preference.  

Around 1500 the Mutapa state arose, founded by Nyatsimba Mutotas from Great Zimbabwe.  He had been sent to the  north to find new soruces of salt and this shortage of resources (not only salt but others such as water and food) lead to the decline of Great ZImbabwe.  Mining of gold had reduced as the gold mines had become exhausted and there was more and more political instability. 

                    A queen possibly at this time - Sam Kuve (Sampson Kuvenguhwa)

Great Zimbabwe was slowly abondoned and the next we hear about this great city is from the portguese traders who passed en route.  Other groups such as the Lemba also claim to have built Great Zimbabwe but this has after a lot of research been refuted and the archaelogical evidence suggest that it was built by the Shona and Venda peoples. 

In the early 21st Century, a university was created for arts and culture, near to the vicinty of the ruins.  Ths should help to protect these great ruins further from damage.  

    The ZImbabwe Bird in the flag of ZImbabwe