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

The heights of the main wall from the outer bases are as follows:—

The 10 ft. length is 24 ft. above its base, and this, with the 24 ft. length of main wall, forms the western side of the Gold Furnace Enclosure.

The 24 ft. length is 25 ft. high, and is divided into two depths, one below the other, 11 ft. and 14 ft., the 11 ft. being the wall and the 14 ft. being a long buttress which starts at 9 ft. from the south side of the 22 ft. gap and runs to the cliff. The main wall, however, is continued down to the base of the buttress which is built up against it. This buttress forms a terraced passage, and was probably the way the ancients passed from the Eastern Temple to the Gold Furnace Enclosure below by means of a natural bridge formed by a long and narrow boulder, the west end of which is built into the buttress, down the north side of which is a narrow descent with a few block steps still remaining.

The 39 ft. length is 22 ft. higher than the débris at its outer base, it is 17 ft. higher than the débris at the centre of the main wall, and 11 ft. at the steps which lead up from Pattern Passage to the Western Entrance of the Eastern Temple.

On the top of the south banquette wall were most probably steps leading up to within 2 ft. or 3 ft. of the summit of the wall as if for a look-out. A rounded buttress stands out 2 ft. 6 in. from the main wall, and between it and the inner edge of the banquette wall are some blocks which, though displaced, have fallen in such a way as to provide very strong grounds for this conjecture.

The Eastern Entrance has a pair of buttresses on a semi-circular platform projecting 7 ft. into the temple area, the faces of the buttresses being rounded and flush with the outside edge of this platform. The buttress on the north-east side is 3 ft., and judging by débris, it was once at least 7 ft. high. The opposite buttress is now only 1 ft. 6 in. high. (For measurements of this entrance, see Main Wall.)

Between the south buttress and the banquette wall which runs southwards along the inside of the wall is another raised platform or “blind steps,” but very ruined and projecting now only 2 ft. from the main wall. Among the loose stones on the top of this small platform, which is 6 ft. long, Bent found one of the soapstone birds which has a cystos, with sections of a carved soapstone beam, all of which are now in the museum at Capetown.

At the north side of this entrance is a wall 15 ft. long reaching from the entrance to an angular point in the north cliff. This space so enclosed was built up inside in the form of steps, or blind steps, for they led nowhere, resembling the blind steps in Nos. 7, 9, and 12 Enclosures, and in the Sacred Enclosure (west) in the Elliptical Temple in the valley. The face of a small buttress protrudes some 18 in. from the face of this wall at about midway. Possibly this may have been the lowest step of the blind steps built up in this corner. In 1888 this raised platform had on its summit a soapstone bird and beams. In 1903 two phalli and sections of four soapstone beams were found here, also small gold beads on and near this platform.

The North Entrance is a narrow and deep rock passage 23 ft. long. The east side is formed by the north-west end of the north cliff, and is 45 ft. higher than the floor of the passage, but it beetles over the passage for 6 ft. beyond its north-western side, and so forms, with the immense boulders on the north-west side, an almost complete archway right over the passage. The passage is from 2 ft. to 7 ft. 10 in. wide, but with rounded buttresses, the foundations and débris of which still remain, and also with a boulder that almost blocks the passage; the width of the passage throughout its whole length could not have been more than 2 ft. before the buttresses had become dilapidated. The passage emerges at its north end on the North Plateau (described later).

The West Entrance is formed by the rounded end of the western extremity of the main wall and a large boulder between which it passes. On its present floor it is only 1 ft. 10 in. wide, the wall side having some six courses of blocks exposed. The boulder on the north side has moved some 2 ft. into the entrance since the wall was built, and so partially closed it up, for originally the floor of the entrance was fully 5 ft. lower, and passed into the temple without steps. This was discovered to be the case when the upper portion of Pattern Passage was cleared out (July, 1902), when steps were made over the entrance débris to enable visitors to pass from Pattern Passage into the temple.