Great Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe was part of a large and prosperous global trading network. Archaeologists have even found pottery from China and Persia as well as Arabic coins in the ruins. The elites of the Zimbabwean empire controlled trade along the East African coast. However, the city was largely abandoned in the 15th century. The exact reasons for this are unknown, but it is likely that resource depletion and overpopulation were contributing factors.

The archaeological site in Great Zimbabwe consists of several parts. The Hill Complex, on a rugged rocky spur, is the oldest part and has building elements dating back to around 900 BC.

The ruins of another section of the large complex are located on a hill of the site below the Hill Complex. It is believed that this was the religious center of the site. This so-called Great Enclosure is a walled, circular area dating from the 14th century. The walls are over 9.7 meters high in places and the circumference of the enclosure is 250 meters. The walls were built without mortar and are supported on carefully shaped rocks to maintain the shape of the wall. Inside the outer enclosure wall is a second wall that partly follows the same curve as the outer walls and ends in a ten-meter-high stone tower. It is one of the largest existing structures from ancient sub-Saharan Africa.

The valley ruins form a third section. They consist of a considerable number of houses, mainly made of mud bricks near the Great Enclosure. The distribution and number of houses suggests that a population of between 10,000 and 20,000 people lived in Great Zimbabwe.

Archaeological research has discovered several soapstone bird sculptures in the ruins. It is believed that these birds had a religious function and may have been placed on pedestals. These birds appear on the modern Zimbabwean flag and are national symbols of Zimbabwe.

The ruins of Great Zimbabwe were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986. To this day, there are only a limited number of archaeological excavations. Unfortunately, there was considerable looting and destruction by European visitors in the 20th century. Early European colonialists considered the city too sophisticated to have been built by Africans. Instead, they held Phoenicians or other non-African people as its founders. Despite the damage caused by these colonial looters, Great Zimbabwe has remained one of the largest and most culturally important archaeological sites in Southern Africa, visible and accessible.