GREAT ZIMBABWE

CONSERVATION OF MAPUNGUBWE AND GREAT ZIMBABWE

MAPUNGUBWE wasn’t the only settlement founded by the Shona people. They also settled in various locations in the area to the north in what is today known as Zimbabwe. In fact, the country was named after the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, which is situated in the southeast of the country near present-day Masvingo.

“Zimbabwe” means “stone houses” in Shona. The ruins comprise several stone enclosures that are up to 11m tall and were built without the use of cement.

This remarkable city’s golden age was between the 10th and 15th centuries. About 18 000 people lived there. S Great Zimbabwe was the capital of a kingdom that conducted trade far and wide, especially in gold and ivory. They traded their goods along Africa’s Indian Ocean coastline and brought back wares from as To find out more about Great Zimbabwe go to tinyurl.com/yamuqeo9. far afield as India and China. The inhabitants also made sculptures and ceramics, fashioned tools from bone and farmed with cattle and crops.

In the 1800s numerous small soapstone sculptures shaped like birds were found in the Great Zimbabwe ruins. This Zimbabwe Bird later became the country’s national symbol and features on its flag.

SS Great Zimbabwe is believed to have been abandoned by 1450. Archaeologists believe that deforestation and depleted deposits of gold in the local mines forced the population to move elsewhere.

The stone buildings and pottery techniques of Great Zimbabwe were passed on to other areas such as the city of Khami, which is 22km west of Bulawayo and is now also in ruins. In 2003 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) declared Mapungubwe a World Heritage Site. The palace site and settlement area, as well as two other earlier settlements that have been discovered, offer an unrivalled picture of the development of Mapungubwe’s social and political structures over 400 years, according to Unesco.

Great Zimbabwe, situated on 722km² of land, was declared a Unesco World Heritage Site in 1986. The monument site consists of three areas – the Great Enclosure, Hill Complex and Valley Complex.

The Great Enclosure, home to royalty, is the most famous part because of its beautiful towers and granite walls that were constructed without using cement. The Hill Complex was probably the religious centre of the city, while ordinary people lived in the Valley Complex.

Because of Zimbabwe’s economic decline in recent years there’s been a lack of funding to properly conserve and protect Great Zimbabwe.

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