Great Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe is the ruined capital of a southern African state that flourished between about 1100 and 1450 CE, near present-day Masvingo in Zimbabwe. It is famous for its mortarless granite walls, but the walls were enclosures, not roofed buildings: people lived in huts of daga (earth) built inside and around them. The site gave the modern country its name, from a Shona word usually translated as "house of stone".

Site and dates

Stone building began in the 11th century and continued for more than 300 years. The Hill Complex was occupied from the 11th to 13th centuries, the Great Enclosure from the 13th to 15th, and the Valley Complex from the 14th to 16th. The capital was abandoned around 1450, probably because of food shortages and deforestation. The property covers almost 800 ha (about 1,980 acres), of which the city occupies nearly 80 ha (about 200 acres). Population estimates vary: older figures suggest up to 18,000-20,000 people at its peak, while a more recent study suggests no more than 10,000. Earlier farming communities of the Gokomere or Ziwa cultures occupied the valley from around the 4th century but built no stone structures.

Daga huts

UNESCO describes the Great Enclosure, built in the 14th century of cut granite blocks laid in regular courses, as containing a series of daga-hut living quarters. Daga bricks were made from granitic sand mixed with clay, and huts were built within the stone walls, which insulated each group of dwellings. A family area typically had a kitchen, two living huts and a court. In the Valley Ruins, living areas include daga huts, floors, benches and basins.

Most of the population lived outside the walls in houses of mud on timber frames. Over the 13th century the ruling group shifted to houses of thick daga rather than daga and poles, and used stone walls to screen themselves from view.

Roofs

Published descriptions of the site do not record the roofs of its huts directly, since none survive. Village huts in the region were traditionally built of clay and sticks with conical thatched roofs, and rural homesteads in Zimbabwe still use mud walls under thatch, a pattern often linked to the dwellings of Great Zimbabwe.

Walls

The Great Enclosure walls stand up to 11 m (36 ft) high and are built without mortar. Inside is the Conical Tower, 5.5 m (18 ft) in diameter and 9 m (30 ft) high. The Hill Ruins use rougher granite rubble, with narrow, partly covered passageways between enclosures. The Valley Ruins show chevron and chequered decoration.

Protection

The site has been legally protected since 1893 and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1986. Its conical tower has been echoed in modern buildings such as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (1996).