Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia / An account of two years' examination work in 1902-4 on behalf of the government of Rhodesia

by R. N. Hall

CONSTRUCTION

The construction of the main wall from the north to the east, and round to the south and south-west, is admittedly by far the finest specimen of ancient constructive work yet found in Rhodesia; it has consequently been made the standard by which the best-known writers and greatest authorities judge of the quality of the work shown in other walls in the country. Certainly two large and important ruins in the Lower Sabi Valley, which are much larger in area but with lower walls than Zimbabwe, closely rival the Great Zimbabwe in construction and boldness of design. But with regard to the more massive and highest portion of the main wall every practical builder who visits Zimbabwe is amazed at the equal distribution of the joints, the conscientious bonding of the outer courses, the good quality of stone selected, the careful dressing and the regularity of the sizes of the blocks, the neat packing throughout the whole width of the wall, and the tiling of the summits of the wall with “throughs.” The filling-in of the wall has been most conscientiously executed, and is seen to have been done course by course with the faces of the wall, as the courses throughout are pronounced to correspond with the outer courses of the wall on either side, and some builders have positively stated that some sort of a levelling instrument must have been used. “Straight joints” for more than two or three courses are absent, and these are rare, “false courses” are also rare, and there is little seen of chips levelling-up the corners of the blocks.

The marvellous symmetry of the batter-back of the dry masonry, especially in the boldly conceived and most excellently constructed sweep of the wall on its inner face from north to north-east and south-west, secures the admiration of every visitor, and forms one of the chief features by which the Great Zimbabwe stamps itself on one’s memory. The scrupulously careful workmanship displayed here, and particularly in the courses near the Chevron Pattern and on the outer face of the north-east portion of the wall, show undoubtedly the most superior of any ancient building yet discovered in Rhodesia, if not also of the important ruins lying at some distance, to the south-east, of which only sketch-plans and a few photographs are yet to hand. The massive solidity and excellent construction, together with its batter (see Architecture, section “Battering of Walls”), which this wall displays, have, no doubt, secured its wonderful preservation in spite of earthquake, effects of tree and creeper growth, and the ravages of some millenniums of time.

The construction demonstrates the fact that the ancients in their own home in the north were thoroughly well-practised in the building with either stone blocks or bricks. Moreover, as suggested by Bent and Schlichter, the extensive use of granite cement in making floors both inside and outside the ruins at Zimbabwe proves that it was by design that the ancients adopted the system of building with dry masonry.

Concerning the construction of the north-west and west portions of the main wall there has been much controversy, Bent and Schlichter being emphatic in stating that not only was it most inferior to that of the other portions of the main wall, but that it was obviously of later construction on contracted lines, but still ancient. These two archæologists could have arrived at this conclusion only by the measurement of the wall and by its quality of workmanship. Sir John Willoughby, on the other hand, contended that it is built as well as any other portion of the main wall. It is certainly not poor building that renders it less easy to climb along its summit, the difficulty being the number of loose stones which line the top owing to the summit having been threshed by branches of large trees.

SOUTH-EAST WALL, WITH CHEVRON PATTERN, OF ELLIPTICAL TEMPLE, ZIMBABWE

This wall—now recently shown to be a reconstruction in a later ancient period[49]—is in every point better built than many walls on the Acropolis, and is superior in workmanship to many of the divisional walls of the Elliptical Temple. The outer face is fairly well constructed.