Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Great Zimbabwe :: essays research papers
GREAT ZIMBABWE                                         This article which I have chosen to read, is about a ruined city of southeast Zimbabwe south of Harare. Great Zimbabwe is an ancient city on the plateau in sub-Saharan Africa. Great Zimbabwe was supposedly a city that controlled much trade and culture of southern Africa during the 12th 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 around 1100 and 1600 A.D. Great Zimbabwe covers 1,779 acres and is made up of 3 main structures. The first one is the Hill 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. It’s thought to have been the royal palace at that time. Between these two large structures is the Valley Ruins. The youngest walls are found here. Some archaeologists deemed that it might have been the area’s control access, for that the wall enables people to walk in single file only. Great Zimbabwe has been designed to change its periphery as the city’s population grew due to the fact that it wasn’t 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 city’s name comes from the Shona term dzimbabwe, meaning â€Å" 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 wasn’t 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 Solomon’s mines found in the Great Zimbabwe.      The first European to arrive to Great Zimbabwe was a German explorer named Karl Mauch, in 1871. It was Mauch’s friend, Adam Render, who was also German and was living in the tribe of Chief Pika, that has lead him to Great Zimbabwe. When Mauch first saw the ruins, he abruptly concluded that Great Zimbabwe wasn’t erected by Africans. He felt that the handiwork was too delicate and the people who constructed this showed they were way too civilized to have been the work of Africans.
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