Great Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe was the capital of a trading state on the Zimbabwe plateau between roughly the 11th and 15th centuries. It was built by ancestors of today's Shona people.

The city's most famous feature is its stonework. The walls of the Great Enclosure rise around ten metres high and are made of carefully shaped granite blocks fitted together without any mortar. Inside stands a solid conical tower.

Great Zimbabwe grew rich on the gold and ivory trade that ran down to the Swahili coast. Archaeologists have found Chinese porcelain, Persian pottery and glass beads at the site, evidence of how far its connections reached.

For decades colonial writers and the Rhodesian government insisted that Africans could not have built it and credited it to outsiders. The evidence never supported them. When Zimbabwe became independent in 1980 it took its name from the city, and a carved soapstone bird from the site sits on its flag. Great Zimbabwe is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.