Great Zimbabwe :: essays research papers

GREAT ZIMBABWEThis article which I have chosen to read, is about a ruined city of southeast Zimbabwe south of Harare. bully Zimbabwe is an ancient city on the p youngau in sub-Saharan Africa. vast Zimbabwe was supposedly a city that controlled much trade and culture of southern Africa during the twelfth and 17th centuries because it was stationed on the shortest route between the northern gold fields, and the Indian Ocean. Archaeologists believed that this masterful stonework was built somewhere nigh 1100 and 1600 A.D. Great Zimbabwe covers 1,779 acres and is made up of 3 main structures. The first one is the pile Complex Hill Complex is the oldest part of the site. The hill was approximately 262 feet high. This enables inhabitants to view enemies from up the hill. Below the Hill Complex is the Great Enclosure, or Elliptical Building. The most dazzling structures of Great Zimbabwe are found here. Its thought to have been the royal palace at that time. Between these two large str uctures is the Valley Ruins. The youngest walls are found here. Some archaeologists deemed that it might have been the areas control access, for that the wall enables people to head in single file only. Great Zimbabwe has been designed to change its periphery as the citys population grew due to the fact that it wasnt constructed around a central plan. Despite that the size has made Great Zimbabwe remarkable, another main factor is its stonework. Many of the structures were made of blocks cut from granite. The citys physique comes from the Shona term dzimbabwe, meaning houses of stone.And, like may other ancient cities, Great Zimbabwe has been concealed by legend. Many people told myths about Great Zimbabwe. But, it wasnt until the late 1800s when archaeological record became severely damaged an almost not decodable when Europeans were attracted by the myth of abundant gold from King Solomons mines found in the Great Zimbabwe.The first European to arrive to Great Zimbabwe was a Ge rman explorer named Karl Mauch, in 1871. It was Mauchs friend, Adam Render, who was also German and was living in the kinship group of Chief Pika, that has lead him to Great Zimbabwe. When Mauch first saw the ruins, he abruptly concluded that Great Zimbabwe wasnt erected by Africans. He felt that the handiwork was withal delicate and the people who constructed this showed they were way too civilized to have been the work of Africans.