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

Main Entrances

NORTH-WEST ENTRANCE

THIS entrance is on the north-west side of the temple at (606 ft. 6 in.) to (611 ft. 6 in.) inside, and [656 ft.] to [660 ft.] outside. As in the case of North and West Entrances, the foundations of the main wall are carried from side to side of the entrance and from the floor of the passage, and in them the outer steps are built. The east side wall is 4 ft. wide where it starts to curve inwards to form the passage and at 6 ft. above the floor of the entrance. The west side is 7 ft. wide where it starts to round inwards and at 6 ft. above the entrance floor.

Evidently this entrance was not of the importance of either of the other two portals to the temple. No internal passages converge upon it; it is less massive, and its purpose appears to have been limited to serving as a communication with No. 1 Ruins only, as a substantial wall which encloses these ruins runs round to the north-west main wall of the temple between [705 ft.] and [710 ft.], where it joins it at right angles to the main walls. These enclosing walls thus cut off on either side the exterior of the North-West Entrance from the other portions of the exterior of the temple, and in these enclosing walls no signs have so far been discovered of there having been any entrances.

NORTH-WEST ENTRANCE, ELLIPTICAL TEMPLE

ENTRANCE TO PASSAGE, No. 10 ENCLOSURE, ELLIPTICAL TEMPLE

This entrance is built on well-curved lines, but the rounded faces of the two side walls do not exactly face one another, since the outside face of the west side projects some 12 in. further north than that on the east side, the west wall being wider than the east one, though on their inside faces they are flush with each other. There are no buttresses on the outside of this entrance. The summits of the side walls, some 6 ft. above the outside level, are less ruined than those of the other two entrances; the gap between the two summits including the width of the entrance is only 8 ft. 6 in., the broken faces of the upper portions of the walls rising perpendicularly on either side.