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

From immediately behind this entrance the north-west face of the hills rises very sharply, so much so that the rains of many years have silted soil to a great depth behind the walls. Rain-water would naturally be guided by the contour of this part of the hill towards this entrance, so that the area behind it has become filled up to a very much higher level than in the time of the original occupiers. Some two dozen cubic feet of this silted soil was cleared out of the entrance in October, 1902, and while the work was progressing a heavy storm, lasting only an hour, broke over Zimbabwe. On visiting the entrance later in the day it was found that this one shower had caused the almost entire filling up of the excavation by mud streams, which had washed down the side of the hill.

Immediately in front of the outer faces of this entrance and running parallel with this length of the Inner Defence Wall, and at a distance of 90 ft. from it, are the remains of a line of wall almost hidden in débris. This wall can be traced for a distance of at least 130 ft., and there appears to have been a passage or entrance through it at a point almost due north of the Water Gate. Further to the north and north-west of this wall is a donga, and on the north-north-west of this donga runs the outer defence wall, which is at least 600 yds. long, and encloses the line of dongas from west of the Elliptical Temple with the north-east of the base of Zimbabwe Hill. In this Outer Defence Wall is an opening, and in all probability, judging by the arrangement of the wall débris and the contour of the ground, a gateway or entrance was once situated at this point. This opening in the Outer Defence Wall, the traces of an entrance in the ruined wall in front of the Water Gate, and the Water Gate entrance are all in one line, and the line is further made complete by the remains of two small walls in the donga itself, which equally divide its width, as if these walls either carried or supported a bridge; or at any rate afforded the means for crossing the donga. In fact, the size of these dongas and their relative positions appear to indicate that on this side of the hill the Acropolis was further defended by water. These two small walls show signs of having had rounded entrances in their centres.

Taking into consideration the line of the three entrances, the fact that the ancient ascent through the Water Gate leads into the heart of the main ruins of the Acropolis, and further that the contour of the ground beyond the Outer Defence Wall indicates the direction in which a road from Zimbabwe to the north and north-west must take, it is reasonable to conjecture that the ancient road from Zimbabwe in that direction passed on the north side of the Makuma Kopje, on which Mogabe’s kraal is now located.

TERRACED ENCLOSURES ON NORTH-WEST FACE OF ZIMBABWE HILL

About forty or fifty ledges protrude in step form up the north-west face of Zimbabwe Hill from the valley below up to the front of the west main wall of the Western Temple, and these projections are not only upwards in terrace form, but broadways, extending across the entire length of the north-west face of the hill.

The best view of these ledges is obtained from Makuma Kopje, on which is Mogabe’s kraal. From this point it is seen that these projections must have been artificially made. So great has been the fall of wall débris, and the washing of soil for many centuries by heavy sub-tropical rains down the hillside, that even the outer faces, or retaining walls, of many of these projecting ledges or platforms are completely buried, and their outline can but barely be traced owing to the absence of any outcrop of walls. In fact, the whole of this face of the hill for over 300 yds. upwards, and the same distance broadways, is but a chaos of fallen blocks, and the visitor, while walking over this area, sees infinitely less of their arrangement and plan than can be seen at a distance of a third of a mile from the opposite kopje.

These terraces are not disposed in lines across the hill as are the Hill Terraces of Inyanga, but each is independent of the other. Nor do they in any point resemble the terrace system of the retaining walls so often met with in ruins of the Second Period of Zimbabwe architecture.

Several of these projecting areas on the steep face of the hill have recently been cleared of the débris which has in so many instances completely covered them, and rendered their form but a mere suggestion of an outline. The outer faces of some of the terrace walls have been laid bare, and their construction is seen to be of true Zimbabwe building of the First Period, all features of the Second Period, so far as examinations have extended, being altogether absent.

The walls are not built on straight lines but on curves, some of the curves being laid on bold lines, in some instances amounting to a semi-circle. The angular wall is absent. The construction of most of the walls is superior to that of Second Period walls. There is no promiscuous filling-up of the interiors of the walls. The walls are as well built on the inside as they are on their outside faces, and they possess the true Zimbabwe batter-back, and such entrances as have been discovered are excellently rounded.

The spaces between the outside edge of the summits of these walls in front and the rising surface of the hill behind them have been levelled by falling débris, but there is no lack of evidence to show that, where not wholly filled in naturally in the course of time, the work of their complete filling-in has been systematically carried out by people who were not the original builders. On clearing the irregular surfaces of these ledges of débris it was found that the areas were rudely covered with red clay or daka, and on this flooring were the clay foundations of Makalanga huts, with piles of buck bones and quantities of charcoal and bits of iron slag. Mogabe’s headmen state that these hut foundations are not those of Makalanga of their time, as Mogabe’s kraal, and that of Mokomo before him, though on the north side of the hill, were situated much higher up the hill and much nearer to, or even among, the main ruins. Nor do they belong to Makalanga of sixty years ago, for Mogabe’s people say that when Chipfuno arrived as a boy some seventy years ago this portion of the hill was then in the same state as is seen to-day. Judging by the weathered blocks piled and strewn upon these areas, it is very possible that these rough clay floors and hut foundations are at least seventy years old, if not considerably older. Portions of iron assegais and Makalanga hoes found on these floors are so eaten by rust that they have become thin, and are almost as brittle as glass.