ENTRANCES AND BUTTRESSES
When in 1891 Bent approached Zimbabwe through North Bechuanaland, Gwanda, Tuli, and Belingwe, he passed through the centre of that area in which the earliest of the many ancient ruins of Rhodesia are located. All the ruins he described or mentioned had rounded ends of walls and rounded buttresses, all angular features being conspicuous by their absence. This fact appeared to him so striking that he was constrained, after comparing these ruins with Zimbabwe, to believe that such rounded features belonged to the earliest period of Zimbabwe architecture. Fully a score of competent writers on our ruins, whose valuable and trustworthy contributions, based on personal examination of the same area, have been welcomed by the leading scientific associations of Great Britain and Germany, are also emphatic as to the rounded entrances and buttresses being one of the chief distinctive features of the earliest Zimbabwes. This is further demonstrated in the detailed descriptions of almost one hundred ruins within the same area which are given in The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia, in the great majority of which ruins angular features, except in reconstructions of a later period, are altogether absent.
South Entrance
No. 7 ENCLOSURE
Elliptical Temple
But the Great Zimbabwe being the finest type of that early class of ancient building, it may be interesting to know that Bent’s conclusion is thoroughly confirmed by these ruins.
| ENTRANCES | ||
| Ruins. | Rounded. | Angular. |
| Elliptical Temple (One other entrance is partly rounded and partly angular.) | 23 | 1 |
| Acropolis (One of the angular entrances is of obviously later construction.) | 31 | 4 |
| No. 1 Ruins (One entrance is partly rounded and partly angular.) | 10 | 1 |
| Valley Ruins | 33 | 4 |
| BUTTRESSES | ||
| Elliptical Temple (Two buttresses are partly angular and partly rounded) | 24 | Nil. |
| Acropolis | 19 | 3 |
| No. 1 Ruins | 8 | Nil. |
| Valley Ruins | * | * |
* All rounded except three as so far discovered.
All ends of walls which are still intact are rounded, there being only a few examples so far discovered of angular-ended walls.
North Entrance
No. 7 ENCLOSURE
Elliptical Temple