BLIND STEPS AND PLATFORMS
In several enclosures in the principal ruins at Zimbabwe, but mainly at the Elliptical Temple, and in the angles formed by the meeting of side walls of the enclosures, are to be seen small raised platforms approached by two or three steps. These steps could not have led to higher positions than the small platforms, that is, they could not have been intended for mounting to the summit of the wall, for the bottom steps are at far too short a distance from the walls in comparison with their heights, besides which, the steps and platforms are perfect in themselves, and their summits, judging by the condition of the cement floor, terminated as is seen to-day. Nor are there any signs on the faces of the walls above such platforms of any steps, or that the blocks in the angles of the walls were at any time protected from the weather by any higher structure.
These blind steps surmounted by miniature platforms are made of blocks thickly covered with granite cement similar to that found on the lowest floors of the temple—the steps being large and deep and boldly rounded off. The shape of these erections reminds one of the steps and raised platforms which are frequently seen in stableyards at home, and were once very generally used as mounting blocks.
Bent, unfortunately, discovered only one of these platforms, and this was the one on the north side of the Sacred Enclosure (west), and when he saw it the platform was covered with débris, evidently débris, judging by its age, put there by Dr. Mauch, who had been exploring in this portion of the enclosure. This débris was foreign to this particular spot and had evidently been removed from nearer the Conical Tower. Bent therefore conjectured that these blind steps once led to the summit of the south wall of The Platform. The height of the wall here, 12 ft., could not have been surmounted by these steps, for if carried upwards with the same class of step as below, they would have failed to reach half-way up the wall.
These erections might have served a similar purpose for the enclosures in which they were erected, as did the large Platform immediately in front of the Conical Tower for the whole of the Temple. The best examples are in the north-east corner of No. 12 Enclosure, the south corner of No. 7 Enclosure, both in the Elliptical Temple, and in the south-east corner of the Western Temple and in the north, east, and west angles of the Eastern Temple, both on the Acropolis. Possibly the platform and steps in the South Passage of the Elliptical Temple were used for a similar purpose, for this latter structure, though not built into any angle of walls, is of exactly similar construction to the others.