In the southern part of Africa, there is a unique complex of ruins under the general name "Great Zimbabwe"; not everyone knows that the African country of the same name got its name in honor of this archaeological site. According to historical data, more than a thousand years ago the Shona tribes lived in these places, and it was they who erected numerous buildings, the ruins of which are of such interest to tourists and researchers today.
Back in the 16th century, Portuguese merchants who traveled to Africa for gold, slaves and ivory spoke about the ruins of giant stone structures in the region of the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. But only in 1867 a complex of buildings of Greater Zimbabwe was discovered here.
Since then, disputes have not ceased about who built this stone fortress in southern Africa and why the city suddenly became empty.
According to rough estimates, Great Zimbabwe was founded in the 12th century BC, since its foundation the city has existed for no more than 300 years. The reason why a large city became empty after a few hundred years remains unknown. The main feature of the ruins lies in their architectural characteristics. All buildings in Greater Zimbabwe were built from the same regular shaped stone monoliths that were simply stacked on top of each other without the use of any bonding materials. It is surprising that with such features of the buildings, they managed to partially survive after more than 3,000 years.
The German geologist Karl Mauch has repeatedly heard from Africans about the ruins of a fortress in an unexplored region north of the Limpopo River. No one knew when and by whom the mysterious buildings were erected, and the scientist decided to embark on a risky journey to unknown ruins.
When Mauch finally reached Zimbabwe, which in the Shona language meant "stone house", the sight before him amazed the researcher. A huge wall almost 300 meters long, about ten meters high and up to five meters wide at the base surrounded the settlement, which apparently once housed the residence of the ruler of an ancient country. During the construction, the so-called dry masonry method was used, which was made without a bonding solution. At 800 meters north of the settlement, at the top of a hill, the ruins of another structure, called the Stone Fortress, were discovered.
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Although Mauch found here some household items characteristic of the local culture, it did not even occur to him that the architectural complex of Zimbabwe could have been built by Africans. It was believed that the black population of the continent is only capable of grazing livestock, engaging in primitive agriculture, or, dying of hunger, lying under a palm tree, waiting for the cherished fruit to fall from it …
Mauch decided that Zimbabwe was definitely the work of the whites who had once been here. According to the researcher, legendary King Solomon and Queen of Sheba could have been involved in the construction of the complex, and this place itself is the biblical Ophir, the land of gold mines. Mauch finally strengthened his opinion when he found out that the beam of one of the doorways was made of cedar. It could have been brought only from Lebanon: it was known that King Solomon widely used cedar in the construction of his palaces.
In the end, Mauch came to the conclusion that Zimbabwe was the domain of the Queen of Sheba. The assertions of the scientist were very much to the liking of the colonialists. Further controversy over Zimbabwe was heavily involved in politics: if the grandiose complex was built by the whites, then they have the historical right to claim and occupy African lands.
Numerous adventurers began to flock to Zimbabwe in search of the gold of the ancient kings. The treasure hunters hoped to find the treasury of the Queen of Sheba, because an ancient gold mine once existed next to the complex. It is not known whether anyone managed to stumble upon wealth (such things are usually not covered), but the damage to the ancient structures was colossal, and this further greatly complicated the research of archaeologists. During excavations, gold items were actually found later, albeit in insignificant quantities.
In 1905, Mauch's conclusions ventured to be challenged by the English archaeologist David Randall-McIver. He made his own research in Zimbabwe and stated that the buildings are not so ancient and were erected in the period from the XI to the XV century. It turned out that Great Zimbabwe - as this architectural complex was called - could well have been built by indigenous Africans.
Greater Zimbabwe is the main shrine and cult center of the Shona ancestors, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Greater Zimbabwe is the only ancient group of stone structures in all of Sub-Saharan Africa. Until now, archaeologists argue who built this city and cannot come to a common opinion.
For centuries, the mystery of the ancient complex of structures south of the Sahari in Africa has haunted historians and archaeologists. Trying to establish the origin of Greater Zimbabwe, scientists have found its connection with biblical characters - King Solomon and Queen of Sheba.
Advanced civilizations existed in Africa even before the arrival of Arab traders who settled here in the 11th century. Numerous ruins of stone buildings have been discovered between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, but Greater Zimbabwe, whose name is also given to the modern state (formerly Southern Rhodesia), stands alone in this row.
Zimbabwe is an English modified African word for "stone houses". The fortress was built of stone - a building material unusual for Africa. The Greater Zimbabwe complex is scattered over an area of 24 hectares in the upper valley. Its main structure is the Great Settlement, surrounded by an elliptical outer wall 250 m long.
Three narrow passages in the wall lead to the interior area, barred by other stone walls and passages. The most curious structure of the Great Settlement is a conical tower near the outer wall. This excellent example of dry masonry construction rises by 9 m, its circumference at the base is 17 m. Its shape resembles the granary of the peasants of the local Shona tribe, but due to its absolute solidity, the purpose of the structure is an insoluble mystery for archaeologists.
About 800 m north of the Great Settlement, on top of a granite hill, lie the ruins of another complex, known as the Stone Fortress, or Acropolis. It was also erected using the dry masonry method. Narrow staircases, which can only be traversed alone, lead to an inner labyrinth of smaller buildings.
In one of these rooms, seven soapstone bird figurines believed to be of religious significance were found; now the image of this bird has become the national emblem of Zimbabwe. The first Europeans to hear about Greater Zimbabwe were Portuguese traders who arrived in Africa in the 16th century in search of gold. About 50 years later, the Portuguese missionary João dos Santos mentioned the same buildings in his writings, reporting that some Africans considered them to be the ruins of gold mines belonging to the Queen of Sheba or possibly King Solomon. Dos Santos himself believed that these were the mines of King Solomon, referred to in the Bible as the gold mines in Ophir.
Generally speaking, not a single Portuguese has personally seen Greater Zimbabwe - legends about its existence were passed on by word of mouth by African traders. Nevertheless, it was believed that the biblical land of Ophir was discovered. Later, in the middle of the 17th century, the Dutch who settled in South Africa tried to find the stone ruins of Ophir, but did not succeed in this. In 1867, the German geologist Karl Mauch visited Great Zimbabwe and in his detailed report declared it to be the ruins of the palace of the Queen of Sheba. In 1905, the English archaeologist David Randall-McIver strongly rejected this conclusion and began his excavations in the area of the Great Settlement and the Acropolis. In the course of the work, he suggested that these ruins are not so ancient and that the construction of the complex began in the 11th century and ended in the 15th. Subsequent archaeological research confirmed his conclusion, proving alsothat originally this territory was developed in the III century.
Most experts agree that Greater Zimbabwe was planned and built by Africans. It remains, however, unclear why it was built of stone, and not of wood and clay traditional for Africa. The nearby ancient mine (from which the precious metals were mined) indicates that the site was probably the center of Africa's ore production, which fell into decay in the 15th century. British archaeologist Roger Summers, who explored the mines of Zimbabwe in 1958, concluded that the mining methods used there most likely came from India. The objects found here belong to the Arab and Persian cultures and prove that the inhabitants of Greater Zimbabwe maintained contact with the outside world. But without written evidence, it is difficult to establish the facts. So grandiose stone ruinssurrounded by picturesque hills, remain the only surviving evidence of a civilization lost in time.
Greater Zimbabwe was discovered in 1888. Zimbabwe's architecture is unique and belongs exclusively to the African type. The largest structures are a castle on a hill ("Acropolis") and an elliptical building called a temple, 90 meters long and 60 meters wide. According to one version, the elliptical building is an exact copy of the palace of the Queen of Sheba in Jerusalem, and the Acropolis is a copy of the Temple of Solomon on Mount Moriah.
The quality of the stone construction work is noteworthy, especially in the northeastern part of the temple wall. In some places it reaches 10 meters in height, and at the base it is 6 meters wide. At the upper end there is a belt of zigzag patterned masonry that occupies a quarter of the wall, which is 244 meters long. Stonecutters hewn the granite blocks and arranged them in regular rows around the central stone. This wall, like the others in the fence, is somewhat curved. The function of the interior walls and walkways has not yet been clarified. But the structure doesn't look like it had a roof. Likewise, the role of the conical tower on which the zigzag pattern reappears is not clear. The style of the masonry is very similar to the walls of the city of Gebel-Uri (Western Sudan).
Inside the outer wall of the "temple" are the smaller wall ellipses. Of the buildings, the tower is 6 m wide and 10 m high. It has no stairs, no windows, or even an entrance, but is filled with stones inside.
The Acropolis stands on a 27 meter high slope and can be reached by stairs. The steps were carved into the rock, they are just so wide that one person can climb them. This place was also protected by a wall. Monolithic pillars were erected at a certain distance on the 4-meter wide track running along its upper part.
Founded in the 7th century and lasted until the 18th century, Zimbabwe is a “puff pastry”. Its foundations are much more years old, no one was looking for a beginning …
A crumbling ring of stone walls and platforms about 250 meters in circumference was previously thought to have belonged to the palace complex of local rulers around 800 years ago. But Richard Wade of the Nkwe Ridge Observatory thinks the structure was used similarly to the famous Stonehenge in the UK. The location of the walls, intricate symbols on the stone monoliths and the position of the tall tower suggest that medieval Zimbabwe was used as a complex for observing the moon, sun, planets and stars for centuries.
“The importance of Greater Zimbabwe is that it was the capital of the only known sub-Saharan African empire to have existed for nearly 1,000 years,” says Wade. Several stone monoliths are lined up with some of the bright stars in the constellation Orion as they rise on the morning of the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice. Another monolith contains marks that match the patterns of the orbits of Earth and Venus.
These signs could be used to predict eclipses. In his most controversial assumption, Wade believes that the tower in the complex was probably built to observe the explosion of a new star around 1300. According to ancient legend, the ancestors of the natives migrated from the north, following an unusually bright star in the southern skies.
At one time, Greater Zimbabwe was the main shrine and cult center of the ancestors of the Shona people (from the Bantu group). As a result of the excavations, steatite bird sculptures, fragments of painted steatite dishes, beads and ceramics were found. Everything testified to the active trading past of the city. The word "Zimbabwe", in addition to the main meaning - "stone houses", has an additional - "houses of worship."
The ruins of Zimbabwe are not one of a kind. In the vicinity of the port of Nova Sofala (Mozambique) there are the ruins of several similar structures, albeit smaller in size. It can be argued with confidence that the elliptical wall did not serve defensive purposes. The purpose of the conical tower without entrances, steps and windows is still unknown.