Great Zimbabwe is 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 by ancestors of the Shona people began in the 11th century and continued until the 15th century, spanning an area of 722 hectares (1,780 acres) which, at its peak, could have housed up to 18,000 people. It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Great Zimbabwe served as a royal palace for the Zimbabwean monarch and would have been used as the seat of political power.
One of its most prominent features were the walls, some of which were over five metres high and which were constructed without mortar. Eventually the city was abandoned and fell into ruin.
The earliest known written mention of the ruins was in 1531 by Vicente Pegado, captain of the Portuguese garrison of Sofala, who recorded it as Symbaoe.
Ancient Zimbabwe artifact below show astronomy was studied in Zimbabwean culture.
Flag of Zimbabwe below
Population: 14.15 million (2013) World Bank
Currencies: United States Dollar, Euro, Botswana pula, Pound sterling, South African rand
Official languages: Shona, English, Ndebele
Harare is the capital and most populous city of Zimbabwe. Situated in the north-east of the country in the heart of historic Mashonaland, the city has an estimated population of 1,606,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area.
When the Ife heads first appeared in the Western World in the first half of the twentieth century, many experts compared them to the highest achievements of ancient Roman or Greek art.
When Leo Frobenius discovered the first example of a similar head it undermined existing Western understanding of African civilization.
–Ancient terracotta Yoruba head from ile-ife, in present day Nigeria. British Museum
Experts could not believe that Africa had ever had a civilization capable of creating artifacts of this quality.
Attempting to explain what was thought an anomaly, Frobenius offered his theory that these had been cast by a colony of ancient Greeks established in the thirteenth century BC.
He made a claim, widely circulated in the popular press, that his hypothesized ancient Greek colony could be the origin of the ancient legend of the lost civilization of Atlantis.
It is now recognized that these statues represent an indigenous African tradition that attained an unusually high level of realism and refinement.
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