Ruins🏛️ City & settlementMiddle Ages & early modern
Great Zimbabwe
The complex is compelling evidence of local African state formation and craftsmanship. Colonial theories attributing its construction to outsiders have been disproved; the site gave independent Zimbabwe its name.
Photo: Andrew Moore from Johannesburg, South Africa · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Facts
- Place
- Near Masvingo, Zimbabwe
- Civilisation / patron
- Ancestors of the Shona and the Kingdom of Zimbabwe
- Built
- c. 1100 – 1450
- Status
- Ruins
- UNESCO World Heritage since
- 1986
- UNESCO World Heritage
History
Great Zimbabwe grew into a powerful urban centre with hill complexes and monumental enclosures. Its high walls were built without mortar from carefully stacked granite blocks. Gold, ivory, glass and imported pottery circulated through trade networks linked to the Indian Ocean. After a gradual shift in population and political power, impressive stone ruins remained.
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Sources: Wikipedia — Groot-Zimbabwe