The construction demonstrates the fact that the ancients in their own home in the north were thoroughly well-practised in the building with either stone blocks or bricks. Moreover, as suggested by Bent and Schlichter, the extensive use of granite cement in making floors both inside and outside the ruins at Zimbabwe proves that it was by design that the ancients adopted the system of building with dry masonry.
Concerning the construction of the north-west and west portions of the main wall there has been much controversy, Bent and Schlichter being emphatic in stating that not only was it most inferior to that of the other portions of the main wall, but that it was obviously of later construction on contracted lines, but still ancient. These two archæologists could have arrived at this conclusion only by the measurement of the wall and by its quality of workmanship. Sir John Willoughby, on the other hand, contended that it is built as well as any other portion of the main wall. It is certainly not poor building that renders it less easy to climb along its summit, the difficulty being the number of loose stones which line the top owing to the summit having been threshed by branches of large trees.
SOUTH-EAST WALL, WITH CHEVRON PATTERN, OF ELLIPTICAL TEMPLE, ZIMBABWE
This wall—now recently shown to be a reconstruction in a later ancient period[49]—is in every point better built than many walls on the Acropolis, and is superior in workmanship to many of the divisional walls of the Elliptical Temple. The outer face is fairly well constructed.
MEASUREMENTS OF MAIN WALL
The circumference of the outer face of the main wall taken at the level of the threshold of the entrances measures about 831 ft. As the foundations throughout the circumference are, as is shown later, some 3 ft. to 5 ft. below this level, and as the usual Zimbabwe batter-back prevails, the circumference of the foundations of this building may safely be estimated at a further 40 ft., which would make a total circumference of the base of the temple some 873 ft.
The circumference of the inside face of the entire main wall measured at a corresponding level is about 776 ft. 6 in., the foundations, as shown later, being from 3 ft. to 5 ft. below the level at which this measurement was taken.
Granite slabs with painted figures now mark the distances both outside and inside round the main wall, commencing in either case at the south side of the West Entrance and going south. The distances on the outside are marked at every 50 ft., and those on the inside at every 20 ft. A small black spot is painted on the wall just above each slab to denote the exact spot in each length measured.
In this description of the Elliptical Temple all measurements in angular brackets are exterior measurements of the main wall only, and those in rounded brackets are those of interior measurements of the main wall, all commencing at the south side of the West Entrance and going south. For instance, “The North-West Entrance is situated between the following points in the main wall—[656 ft.] and [660 ft.] and (606 ft. 6 in.) and (611 ft.),” or “A large granite beam lies at the base of the main wall at (338 ft.).”