NO. 1 RUINS
THESE ruins, which are of an important character, lie on the north side of the Elliptical Temple at a distance of 63 yds. from the north-west entrance to that building, with which it is connected by a substantial and well-constructed wall running out due north from the north-west outer face of the main wall of the temple at 43 ft. west from the north-west entrance and at the points [705 ft.] and [710 ft.].
Visitors would know this ruin as the one which lies back on the left-hand side of the path leading from Havilah Camp to the west entrance of the Elliptical Temple, and as the one with the tall column-like forms of the aloes crowned with fleshy leaves which line the summit of its walls, as also do the candelabra-shaped branches of numerous large euphorbia trees which together impart to these walls a pre-Raphaelite appearance peculiarly striking because of its old-world-looking character. But though this ruin may be known to visitors, they rarely examine its enclosures, for the internal portions, owing to extensive excavations during past years, are most uneven, and require some climbing over their irregular surfaces.
Whether the age of this ruin synchronises with that of the Elliptical Temple is for several obvious reasons open to some question, but that it is “ancient” admits of no possible doubt. Its architecture and construction are both inferior to those of the Elliptical Temple, and to many ruins throughout the country which belong to the earliest type of Zimbabwe buildings, though it must be admitted that great care is shown in its construction. Possibly these buildings are of somewhat later date than the Elliptical Temple, while the purpose to which it was devoted was such as not to warrant such elaborate care being lavished upon it as on the temples and the buildings used as residences.
Excavators have literally turned this ruin inside out, and have excavated whole areas to depths of 5 ft. to 7 ft. till the granite formation was reached, and have left some of the foundations both bare and undermined. There is no doubt that the building has thus been completely ransacked, and yet there is nothing to show that it was either a temple or a place where at any time gold-smelting was carried on, there being no traces of gold furnaces, blow-pipes, crucibles, scorifiers, or cement spattered with gold; in fact, pannings of such soil as still remains within it has not so far shown any “traces” or fragments of gold wire or beads and pellets of gold such as are so frequently and abundantly found in other ruins at Zimbabwe. Nor have any indications of copper-smelting been found here as in other ruins. There is no suggestion in its plan that it was a temple. Certainly there is no decorative pattern on its walls, nor are there any monoliths, nor even fragments of what might have been monoliths. Certainly stones said to be phalli have been found there, but a few years ago it was the fashion in Rhodesia to style every stone of peculiar shape a phallus. But supposing some of these objects were undoubted phalli, these might easily have come from the Elliptical Temple a few yards away, especially seeing that the north-west entrance to the temple was enclosed on either hand by walls of No. 1 Ruins, and that phalli and miniature soapstone birds have been discovered by almost all explorers of these ruins among the débris deposited outside all three entrances to the temple. The inner banquette walls on either side of the north-west entrance to these ruins, as well as the massively built outer walls, strongly suggest a fortification, and the conglomeration of tall buttresses overlooking the Elliptical Temple, and also “The Valley of Ruins,” rather confirms this view, especially as the ruins contain no evidences of any industry having been carried on by the ancients within them. Moreover, these are the only ruins of any importance on the north and west sides of the Elliptical Temple which could possibly have served as a fort for the protection of that side of the temple, and its site occupies a strongly strategetic position on the summit of sloping ground. Unless it was a fortification, the whole flank of the area of small ruins in the vicinity of the north entrance would have been undefended, for on the northern and eastern sides of such area of ruins are very substantially built forts occupying elevations of vantage.
Sir John Willoughby states that the design of this building is very irregular, the inner walls terminate abruptly and form only three sides of an enclosure with floors ever varying in their relative levels, the wall foundations are of unequal depths, and the interiors of some of the walls are carelessly filled in with stones, this latter being a feature absent in the earliest types of Zimbabwes, but present in later ruins.
All these departures from the style of construction as employed in the Elliptical Temple, and in very many of the ruins at Zimbabwe, are obvious to anyone on making an inspection, as also the irregularity in the sizes of the stones of any single course, the poorer quality of the granite, the employment of unhewn stones, and the introduction of the angular and plumb style of building so peculiarly absent in the Elliptical Temple and elsewhere at Zimbabwe. There are no drain-holes in any of the walls of these ruins.
Of old and recent Makalanga occupations of these ruins there is ample evidence. Kafir pottery, bones, ashes, and scraps of iron are abundant, and the clay foundations of Makalanga huts and granaries can be seen in every enclosure on floors overlying rudely filled-in areas.
These ruins occupy an area of 62 yds. from east to west, and 54 yds. from north to south. The portion of the ruins in the best condition, as well as the most important parts, are situated on the west side. The north and east portions are the most dilapidated. The building on the north and north-east sides is on the edge of a sharp slope down into a valley which contains the walls of several minor ruins.
