Great Zimbabwe reaches its height

Great Zimbabwe was a large stone city built by the Shona ancestors in what is now Zimbabwe. It was a trading center at its peak.

The dates of its building and decline are approximate.

Context

UNESCO dates the city's founding to the 11th century, with building continuing until about 1450, and says it was the leading city of a large state in the 14th century. The site covers nearly 80 hectares, and the city may have had more than 10,000 people at its peak. Britannica's estimate for the population of the central ruins and surrounding valley is 10,000 to 20,000.

Excavations found glass beads and porcelain from Asia and Arab coins from Kilwa on the Swahili coast, showing links to the Indian Ocean trade in gold. The local economy also depended on cattle and farming. The name 'Zimbabwe' comes from Shona words usually translated as 'stone house'.

In the colonial era some Europeans wrongly claimed that outsiders had built it. Research shows it was built by Shona-speaking Bantu people, and the modern country took its name from the site.

Its most famous structure is the Great Enclosure, whose curved dry-stone wall was built without mortar. Soapstone birds were found on the site and now appear on Zimbabwe's national flag and coat of arms. Reasons for the decline of the city around the middle of the 15th century are debated. Suggested causes include overuse of local resources and shifting trade routes, and none is definitely proven.