West wall.—The west wall of the temple runs from north-west to south-west, and is 137 ft. long on its inner face, and may, for the purposes of this description, be divided into two lengths, i.e., 29 ft. and 108 ft. commencing at its north end.
The 29 ft. length extends from the north end of the west wall to the south-west side of a divisional wall of the same height, but only 4 ft. wide on its summit, which is built up against the inner face of the main west wall and protrudes 9 ft. into the temple in a south-easterly direction. This divisional wall has a drain-hole right through it at 6 ft. below its summit. It is evident that the bottom of the drain, which passes through dry masonry, once had a lining of cement which resembles in make and quality that used in the lowest floor of the temple. This length of the main wall is still intact.
The 108 ft. length extends from the south-west side of the divisional wall just mentioned to the southern extremity of the main wall. At 10 ft. south of this divisional wall is the lowest point in the interior of the temple. At 33 ft. along this length, still measuring in a southerly direction, the wall has been considerably damaged, there being a wide and deep gap on the outer side and a depression in the general line of summit of the wall on its inner face. From this point in this length to 86 ft. the wall is again intact, and at its original height. The last 22 ft. of the 108 ft. length is very considerably dilapidated. The west wall terminates on the south-south-west in a rounded end, the lower part of which is exceedingly well built and stands 11 ft. above the ground. This rounded end is one of the two rounded buttresses which form the north or right-hand side of the west end of the Parallel Passage on approaching it from the Higher Parapet.
The widths of the west wall at the summit are as follows: north extremity, 13 ft. 8 in.; at north end of the 108 ft. length, 14 ft. 6 in.; at the gap, 2 ft. to 3 ft.; at south-south-west of gap, 12 ft. The gap is 23 ft. long on the inner part and 29 ft. long on the outer or west side.
The heights of the wall above the present levels of the ground, outside and inside, are as follows: northern extremity, 25 ft. outside, and 6 ft. inside; at northern extremity of the 108 ft. length, 22 ft. outside, and 16 ft. inside; at south-west of gap, 21 ft. outside, and 10 ft. 6 in. inside. The 22 ft. portion of the 108 ft. length is simply a great pile of wall débris. The outside measurements are taken from the top of the Western Parapet, which runs along at the foot of the west face of the wall.
There are two points which will make this curved west wall of great interest to archæologists:—
(1) It has the widest summit of any ancient wall yet discovered in Rhodesia, and
(2) The Monoliths and Conical Towers alternating along its summit. It should be stated that there are two lengths of summits of this wall still remaining intact at their original heights. One length is at the northern end of the wall, and is 44 ft. in length, and the other at the south of the gap, and this is 46 ft. in length.
ENTRANCE TO COVERED PASSAGE, WESTERN TEMPLE, ACROPOLIS