A TURN IN THE PASSAGE OF THE SOUTH-EAST ASCENT, ACROPOLIS
VIEW FROM SOUTH-EAST ASCENT, ACROPOLIS
The end walls or frame of this dentelle pattern are still to be seen, and many of the small blocks used in making this pattern were found in the passage-way. The blocks can always be identified by their exact similarity in size, and also on two faces they are exceedingly time-worn, if not decomposed, as they are built up in columns with one corner projecting outwards and flush with the face of the wall. This pattern has now become completely destroyed by wild vine trees growing inside the wall and forcing out its outer face on to the passage floor. This damage must have been done within the last ten years.
This was one of the finest examples of dentelle pattern so far discovered in Rhodesia, and had it not been destroyed would have been by far the largest pattern of all the five instances. Dentelle pattern is one of the many distinguishing features of the first period of Zimbabwe architecture.
On the floor of this passage at this point and upwards there is a flight of some thirty or forty steps. Each is very narrow from front to back, so much so that it is exceedingly awkward for anyone wearing boots to climb or descend them, though the Makalanga with their bare feet climb them with the greatest ease. The steps extend from side to side of the passage, but their end blocks, which here are very small, are not built into the foundations of the side walls as are the large steps to be found in the entrances and passages of all the original buildings at Zimbabwe. It is therefore believed that these steps in the ascent, or at least these particular steps, are not ancient, but are laid upon the original steps by mediæval Makalanga, for there is a freshness in their appearance which is never seen in steps which are undoubtedly ancient. This belief is strengthened considerably when one compares the flight of toe-lines with the broad, deep, and massive steps at several points in the ascent, which were built when the foundations of the passage walls were laid.
At the top end of the curve in this length of passage the heights of both walls are 9 ft., with a width of passage at this point of 2 ft. 4 in. In this curve are traces of several rows of large steps.
At 12 ft. above the curve the passage turns with a sharp angle to due west-north-west. On the north or inner side at this turn is a large buttress built up against the face of the cliff. This buttress is 19 ft. 6 in. in height at its rear and abuts from the cliff for 2 ft. 6 in. The front of the buttress is only 7 ft. in height. The buttress is 19 ft. long, but wall débris fallen from the summit of the cliff extends upwards towards the entrance to the Rock Passage for another 8 ft. The outer wall here averages from 2 ft. 6 in. to 3 ft. 6 in. in height. This wall has every appearance of having been reconstructed at a later period. Its face is exposed to the fall of every stone from the walls on the summit of the precipice, and no wall débris could descend without damaging it. Up against its face were piles of blocks which had come from above, but some of these piles were comparatively modern. This point in the ascent, owing to the formation of the face of the cliff, would have guided to it all débris falling from the southern wall of the Eastern Temple, some portions of which have fallen into the ascent. The passage between the buttress of the outer wall is 2 ft. wide, but at the top end of the buttress it widens out to 4 ft. where it enters the Rock Passage.