SocietySub-Saharan Africa

Great Zimbabwe

Jan 1100 – Jan 1450

Mortarless walls, and a deliberate falsification of history

In depth

Rhodesia's government actively censored research pointing to local origin, because the finding undermined the justification for white rule. Archaeologists who insisted lost their posts. When the country became independent in 1980 it took the name Zimbabwe from the site, and the bird figure from the ruins became its national emblem.

For children

Great Zimbabwe had walls eleven metres high, built of shaped stone without mortar, and traded with China and Persia. Colonial authorities refused for decades to accept that Africans had built it, and forbade archaeologists from saying so.

Connects to

Ironworking south of the Sahara100 – 500
The Indian Ocean tradeJan 1000 – Jan 1500
The Scramble for AfricaNov 15, 1884

Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org