Great Zimbabwe

(noun)

A ruined city in the southeastern hills of Zimbabwe near Lake Mutirikwe and the town of Masvingo. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe during the country's Late Iron Age. Construction on the monument began in the 11th century and continued until the 15th century. It is believed to have served as a royal palace for the local monarch. As such, it would have been used as the seat of political power.

Related Terms

Examples of Great Zimbabwe in the following topics:

  • Great Zimbabwe

    • Great Zimbabwe is a ruined city in the southeastern hills of today's Zimbabwe.
    • The exact identity of the Great Zimbabwe builders is at present unknown.
    • The Kingdom of Zimbabwe, of which Great Zimbabwe was the capital, existed between circa 1220 and 1450 in modern-day Zimbabwe.
    • Within a generation, Mutapa eclipsed Great Zimbabwe as the economic and political power in Zimbabwe.
    • Great Zimbabwe is notable for its advanced masonry techniques.

  • Architecture of Great Zimbabwe

    • Perhaps the most famous site in southern Africa, Great Zimbabwe is a ruined city constructed by the Mwenemutapa.
    • The site of Great Zimbabwe is considered a source of pride in the region, and the modern nation of Zimbabwe derived its name from the site.
    • View west from the Eastern Enclosure, Great Zimbabwe, showing the granite boulder (far right) that resembles the Zimbabwe Birds.
    • Great Zimbabwe is most famous for its enormous walls, built without mortar.
    • Distinguish the features of the Hill Complex, the Greate Enclosure, and the Valley Complex of Great Zimbabwe.

  • The Bantu Migration

    • Further east, Bantu-speaking communities had reached the great Central African rainforest, and by 500 BCE, pioneering groups had emerged into the savannas to the south, in what are now the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, and Zambia.
    • Another stream of migration, moving east by 1000 BCE, was creating a major new population center near the Great Lakes of East Africa, where a rich environment supported a dense population.
    • Movements by small groups to the southeast from the Great Lakes region were more rapid, with initial settlements widely dispersed near the coast and near rivers due to comparatively harsh farming conditions in areas further from water.
    • Between the 13th and 15th centuries, the relatively powerful Bantu-speaking states on a scale larger than local chiefdoms began to emerge in the Great Lakes region, in the savanna south of the Central African rainforest, and on the Zambezi river where the Monomatapa kings built the famous Great Zimbabwe complex.
    • By the time Great Zimbabwe had ceased being the capital of a large trading empire, speakers of Bantu languages were present throughout much of Southern Africa.

  • Leadership

    • Societies like Great Zimbabwe show a high degree of social stratification, which is common of centralized states.
    • Archaeologists and historians have determined that for many societies, the elite held a great deal of wealth in the form of elaborate pottery, sculptures, beads, jewelry, and pendents made of copper, gold, bronze, ivory, and other revered materials.
    • Their rulers were also often depicted with their mouths covered so that the power of their speech would not be too great.
    • Great instability was mainly the result of the marginalization of ethnic groups, some of which had been exacerbated, or even created, by colonial rule.

  • Mugabe and the Republic of Zimbabwe

  • Domestic Architecture in Modern Africa

    • One common theme in a great deal of traditional African architecture is the use of fractal scaling: small parts of the structure tend to look similar to larger parts, such as a circular village made of circular houses.
    • Experimental designs have also appeared, most notably the Eastgate Centre, Harare in Zimbabwe.
    • Neo-vernacular architecture, or new forms of vernacular architecture, continues, for instance with the Great Mosques of Nioro or New Gourna.

  • Portugal and West Africa

    • The next crucial breakthrough was in 1488, when Bartolomeu Dias rounded the southern tip of Africa, which he named the "Cape of Storms. " He continued to sail east as far as the mouth of the Great Fish River, proving that the Indian Ocean was accessible from the Atlantic.
    • Soon the cape was renamed by King John II of Portugal the "Cape of Good Hope" because of the great optimism engendered by the possibility of a sea route to India, proving false the view that had existed since Ptolemy that the Indian Ocean was land-locked.
    • The Portuguese dealt with the other major state of Southern Africa, the Monomotapa (in modern Zimbabwe), in a similar manner.

  • The Swahili Culture

    • Swahili culture is the product of the history of the coastal part of the African Great Lakes region.
    • They all competed against one another for the best of the Great Lakes region's trade business, and their chief exports were salt, ebony, gold, ivory, and sandalwood.
    • Kilwan traders from the coast encouraged the development of market towns in the Bantu-dominated highlands of what are now Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe.

  • The Costs of Inflation

    • The photo shows bills worth millions and billions of dollars that were printed by the Zimbabwe government as a response to massive inflation.

  • African Art

    • The Bushmen, also referred to as the San, are the indigenous people of Southern Africa, whose territory spans most areas of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola.