Sign In
Advertisement
Published: January 8th 2010January 8th 2010
The trip there
On a recent trip to Zimbabwe we decided to visit the Zimbabwe Ruins. We were staying in Gweru which is about 200km away. What should have taken around 2 hours to get there landed up taking 4 hours due to a broken fanbelt. As luck would have it we got stuck just outside a restaurant called The Golden Spiderweb. A once bustling and popular stopover for travellers and locals alike (with the best apple pie in town I am told), it is now quite run down shabby looking from the outside. The garden looks like something out of Alice in Wonderland - strewn with flower pots in the shape of huge baskets, pillars, benches, ponds without water and plaques with engraved poems. There is also a little stone rondawel in the garden called the “Christmas house” that used to sell all sorts of Christmas goodies, it is now closed.
Surprisingly, the building itself is still in good condition and seems to have been well looked after. The thatch roof, wooden floors, colourful rugs, baroque paintings, decorated walls and animal carvings all add to the eclectic design style. The tables were all neatly set -even though we were the only ones there and the only two items remaining on the menu were tea and sandwiches. Besides for just being a restaurant, The Golden Spiderweb also employs rural people to create beautiful linens which they then sell from their small shop on the premises as well as export overseas. Amazingly, they used to employ around 2,000 local people but I think that number has now dwindled to a few hundred. Beautiful bed linens, shawls, table cloths and lamp shades to name but a few are displayed in the store as well as a crocheted “spiderweb” that is hung at the entrance.
Amazingly a waitress had the phone number of a mechanic who happened to be down the road and who managed to get us a used fan belt! That is something that often impresses me about the Zimbabwe people, they are friendly, helpful and extremely resourceful. So after copious amounts of tea whilst our vehicle was being seen to, we set off on our way once again to the Great Zimbabwe ruins. We took the Main road through Mvuma and Masvingo (referred to some of the locals jokingly as Mash Vegas - the irony in the fact that it is a small town with not much going on at all) and arrived just after lunchtime.
Great Zimbabwe
The site area is well kept, the lawns are neatly mown and the area and bathrooms are clean. There is an entrance fee - USD15 for non-residents and USD5 for residents. There are camping facilities as well as basic accommodation available in the area below the site, as well as a hotel just next door fittingly called the Great Zimbabwe Hotel. We decided to get a tour guide as there are no information boards at the ruins. Our guide spoke well and was extremely knowledgeable about the history of the ruins, the area and the country’s history in general. You can tip but it is not mandatory as there is a fee for the guide payable upfront of USD3 for non-residents and USD2 for residents.
A short walk up a gradual hill takes you up to the Great Enclosure. It is vast in size with walls 250m in circumference, 11m high and 4m thick in places. There are 3 entrances, all of which have been reconstructed and reinforced. The outside top of the walls are decorated with a chevron pattern, said to represent the female. This enclosure is said to have been used for ceremonies and also to house the king’s 200 wives! Within the enclosure you can find the conical tower (22m high), which is said to mimic the shape of a sorghum grain. Early explorers thought there was gold in the tower but soon found out it was only rock. There is also a platform that is said to have been from where women taught the younger girls the art of “bedroom gymnastics”.
Further down the hill is the Valley Complex where the subjects of the kingdom used to live. The way of life of the rural people today is not dissimilar to the way people used to live back in 1500 AD it seems. Many of the same implements and processes are still used today for example grinding of grain is still done by the women with a rock and grinding stone, ploughing is still done by hand or with oxen. Next to the valley enclosure is a working Shona village, with attractions such as dancing and curio shops for tourists.
There is a museum on site which details the timeline of the inhabitants of the area and also where artefacts are housed. Six of the seven famous Zimbabwe bird carvings are housed in the museum (the 7th is in the Groote Schuur Museum in Cape Town). The soapstone carvings were found in and around the ruins. This famous bird appears on the 1 Zim Dollar bill as well as on the country’s flag. I would definitely recommend visiting the museum, there are many interesting artefacts on display and not to mention an air-conditioned room which offers some respite from the heat outside!
The Hill Complex is where the king used to live. At the bottom of the hill there was apparently a guardhouse and a platform where guests and visitors would leave him gifts. There are 3 paths up the steep granite hill, the Ancient path (which we took), the Millennium path which is not as steep and the Watergate path that women used to go fetch water in the valley below. On the way up the guide pointed out a platform where visitors of the King used to stay. The stairway closer to the top of the hill is impressively built in between massive granite boulders and is very steep and narrow. This was due to fitting it between natural obstructions as well as for safety. The view from the top is spectacular! It overlooks the Great Enclosure as well as the Valley Complex and surrounding areas. You can see for miles and Zimbabwean countryside truly is beautiful. In December the area is green from the summer rainfall, flat top trees (Acacia’s) and granite boulders dot the landscape. On the other side of the complex the view stretches over Lake Kyle.
The Hill Complex is much bigger than you imagine. Most areas on the Hill Complex, where natural boulders do not form boundaries, are walled with the same stone as used in the enclosure. There are a number of different areas and sections all with different purposes, including an area where the king used to sleep. When a king died they used to flatten the huts he used in this area and build the hut of the new king on top of that. After centuries of this the rubble had gotten so high and threatened to topple and knock an original stone wall over. So an archaeologist decided they should dig through the piled rubble and in so doing discovered a number of layers in the ground, where you can clearly see the layers of floors that were laid at different times, as well as revealed the original floor of a hut that was used by one of the first kings and is still largely intact. You can see a seat and cooking hollow in the clay.
Another large area was used as a forum/entertainment area. Seating is constructed on one side with stone and opposite is a natural raised seating area for the king formed from the natural boulders. Apparently meetings as well as dancing used to take place here.
Next to one of the small paths there is a cave facing the Great Enclosure. It is said that this was used to communicate with the people of the kingdom. Our guide enthusiastically got into the cave and gave a hearty yell, which echoed throughout the valley.
History of area
Although archaeologists and historians have come up with theories and speculated around the ruins, little is actually known for sure.
Begun during the eleventh century A.D. by Bantu-speaking ancestors of the Shona, Great Zimbabwe was constructed and expanded for more than 300 years. There are 300 similar complexes located on the Zimbabwean plateau (which suggest the kingdom was vast) but Great Zimbabwe has the largest structures by far. There is evidence that the population traded with people from Persia (glass beads), China (ink pot) and India and there is even some speculation that the structures were built by Europeans. At its peak the area had a population of 25,000 people. It is believed that only royalty and people of importance lived in and around the structures, the remainder of the population settled in outer lying areas. In the early 1600’s the site was abandoned, one of the theories is due to lack of resources.
Great Zimbabwe was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.
How to get there
There is an airstrip at Masvingo but the closest main airports are Harare and Bulawayo. Not many airlines fly direct so, depending on where you are coming from, may have to get up to 3 connecting flights. If you are travelling from South Africa, BA and SAA have quite a few flights to Harare per week (from Johannesburg). There are fewer flights to Bulawayo and it tends to be more expensive. From there you can hire a car, but I would recommend rather incorporating your visit to the ruins with a tour company. I booked flights through http://www.zebratravel.co.za
Advertisement
Blog Options
Zimbabwe
The UK annexed Southern Rhodesia from the South Africa Company in 1923. A 1961 constitution was formulated that favored whites in power. In 1965 the government unilaterally declared its independence, but the UK did not recognize the act and demanded ...more info
Advertisement
Blogged From
TravelBlog Awards
Find Hotels
Guests: | Rooms: |
Copyright Notice: All Rights Reserved
Do not copy images or text from this page without requesting and receiving permission. All rights are reserved by the author and photographer.
Tot: 0.12s; Tpl: 0.008s; cc: 10; qc: 57; dbt: 0.0312s; 1; s:apollo w:www (50.28.60.10); sld: 2; ; mem: 6.4mb
© 2013 TravelBlog.org & Bloggers