ENTRANCES AND BUTTRESSES

When in 1891 Bent approached Zimbabwe through North Bechuanaland, Gwanda, Tuli, and Belingwe, he passed through the centre of that area in which the earliest of the many ancient ruins of Rhodesia are located. All the ruins he described or mentioned had rounded ends of walls and rounded buttresses, all angular features being conspicuous by their absence. This fact appeared to him so striking that he was constrained, after comparing these ruins with Zimbabwe, to believe that such rounded features belonged to the earliest period of Zimbabwe architecture. Fully a score of competent writers on our ruins, whose valuable and trustworthy contributions, based on personal examination of the same area, have been welcomed by the leading scientific associations of Great Britain and Germany, are also emphatic as to the rounded entrances and buttresses being one of the chief distinctive features of the earliest Zimbabwes. This is further demonstrated in the detailed descriptions of almost one hundred ruins within the same area which are given in The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia, in the great majority of which ruins angular features, except in reconstructions of a later period, are altogether absent.

South Entrance
N^o. 7 ENCLOSURE
Elliptical Temple

But the Great Zimbabwe being the finest type of that early class of ancient building, it may be interesting to know that Bent’s conclusion is thoroughly confirmed by these ruins.

ENTRANCES
Ruins.	Rounded.	Angular.
Elliptical Temple (One other entrance is partly rounded and partly angular.)	23	1
Acropolis (One of the angular entrances is of obviously later construction.)	31	4
No. 1 Ruins (One entrance is partly rounded and partly angular.)	10	1
Valley Ruins	33	4
BUTTRESSES
Elliptical Temple (Two buttresses are partly angular and partly rounded)	24	Nil.
Acropolis	19	3
No. 1 Ruins	8	Nil.
Valley Ruins	*	*

* All rounded except three as so far discovered.

All ends of walls which are still intact are rounded, there being only a few examples so far discovered of angular-ended walls.

North Entrance
N^o. 7 ENCLOSURE
Elliptical Temple

The above figures show conclusively that these rounded features, excluding the ends of walls which are almost always rounded, are in a far greater proportion than 146 to 13 which are angular, and at least three of the latter, if not others, for reasons explained elsewhere, can be shown to have been erected at a much later period, one being built upon a floor of common Makalanga daga, and another débris containing ordinary Kafir articles of no very great age.

All the entrances in the main outer walls, save one, are rounded, the few angular entrances being found, with two exceptions, in slighter walls, mainly divisional, some of which were erected later possibly to suit the immediate convenience of later occupiers, for divisional walls had been removed, reconstructed, or entirely fresh ones erected in new directions in almost every ruin, and in some instances the foundations of the later walls cross at right or oblique angles over the reduced summits of older divisional walls.

Walls of the earliest period widen out as they near entrances. This feature is not present in plumb and angular walls of later construction.

There is no evidence whatever in the rounded entrances that they were ever covered over, but in two angular entrances on the Acropolis the butts of the broken slate lintels still remain in the side walls.

Although there are not sufficient proofs to enable one to definitely determine whether the rounded entrances as a rule were once covered over, some of the evidences to negative the covering in of rounded entrances may be noted:—

(a) Had such entrances been roofed in, the collapse of the lintels must have brought down far more of the walls than have fallen.

(b) The courses of the blocks at the necessary height above the floor of the entrances on either side do not always correspond.

(c) The top courses near the summit of the walls on either side of the entrances show distinct signs of curving inwards towards the entrances. This is particularly noticed on the east side of the north-west entrance to the Elliptical Temple.

(d) No splinters of slate or granite beams which could have been used as roofing were found in any of the very many rounded entrances.

(e) Two intact rounded entrances, one open up to the summit on either side to a height of 19 ft., one entrance being at the east end of Pattern Passage on the Acropolis.

No main entrance has buttresses on either hand on the outer side, possibly because these would have provided any attacking party with excellent shelter. All buttresses of such entrances are on the inside. Divisional entrances which have buttresses have them on the inside only.

The entrances through a wall of the earlier period are carried over the common foundation in the opening forming the steps, which were evidently constructed before the side walls were erected. These steps are large, broad, and high, and where intact look most imposing. Such entrances resemble stiles, as they are much higher than the levels of the floors on either side.

The entrances through an angular wall of a later period have steps which are not part of either side walls, but were built in after the entrance passage had been constructed, and these show poor workmanship and are very shallow, and recede only two to four inches. As the levels of the enclosures on either side have filled in over the original floors, such “cat-steps” have in some instances been built over the original large steps for the purpose of raising the floor of the entrances, seeing that the enclosures on either side had been filled in some feet above their original levels.

Directly opposite the main entrance of the “Outspan Ruins” is a large circular buttress, as if it were intended to divide any attacking party into small numbers.