User:Prioryman/Great Zimbabwe
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Great Zimbabwe is a ruined city in the southeastern hills of Zimbabwe near Lake Mutirikwe and the town of Masvingo, close to the Chimanimani Mountains and the Chipinge District. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe during the country's Late Iron Age. Construction of the monument by ancestors of the Shona people began in the 11th century and continued until the 14th century.[1][2] The city spanned an area of 722 hectares (1,780 acres) and, at its peak, may have housed up to 18,000 people. After about 400 years of habitation, the city was abandoned and fell into ruin, though the reasons for its decline and fall are not known for certain.
Location | Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe |
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Coordinates | 20°16′S 30°56′E |
Type | Settlement |
Area | 722 ha (1,780 acres) |
History | |
Founded | 11th century |
Abandoned | 14th century |
Periods | Late Iron Age |
Cultures | Kingdom of Zimbabwe |
Official name | Great Zimbabwe National Monument |
Type | Cultural |
Criteria | i, iii, vi |
Designated | 1986 (10th session) |
Reference no. | 364 |
State Party | Zimbabwe |
Region | Africa |
Great Zimbabwe served as a royal palace for the Zimbabwean monarchy and would have been used as the seat of political power. One of its most prominent features were the walls, some of which were over five metres high and which were constructed without mortar. Although its size is exceptional, it was one of over 200 such sites with monumental, mortarless walls in southern Africa. Others include Bumbusi in Zimbabwe and Manyikeni in Mozambique, though Great Zimbabwe is the largest.[3] The word "Great" distinguishes the site from the other small ruins, now known as 'zimbabwes', spread across the Zimbabwe Highveld.[4] It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
The earliest known written mention of the ruins was in 1531 by Vicente Pegado, captain of the Portuguese garrison of Sofala, who heard about it from traders and recorded it as Symbaoe. The first visits by Europeans were in the late 19th century, with investigations of the site starting in 1871.[5] Many European archaeologists and politicians refused to accept that the ruins had been built by Africans, attributing it instead to the Phoenicians, Egyptians and Greeks, among others. Although it was demonstrated as early as 1906 that Great Zimbabwe had been constructed by local people, until as late as 1980 the white-supremacist government of Rhodesia put pressure on archaeologists to deny its construction by black people. The site has since been adopted as a national monument by the Zimbabwean government, and the modern independent state was named for it.