Houses of Stone, Great Zimbabwe National Monument, Masvingo, Zimbabwe

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Running out of Fuel near Antelope Park

So, things are starting to look up a little.  We had a successful travel day consisting of a ride from Antelope Park to Gweru by a staff member heading in for supplies with a bakkie.  This ride was FREE, but he did run out of gas along the way. Lucky for him, we had a just got our new SIM card a couple of days before and so had a working cell phone.  The crammed combi-van that we took next was just that - crammed, but fine, and we arrived in Masvingo no problem.  Then, some helpful locals pointed us in the right direction and we were on to a short combi-ride just outside of town, to catch another combi the final 24km, the closest to the park we could get.  The walk to the park and campground was about 3km (2mi) but we luckily hitched 2 separate rides for short distances which still helped as at least it was less to walk with our heavy backpacks.  So three combi-vans and three hitches made for a long and hot and sticky, but uneventful travel day, and everyone was nice and fair to us (apart from the first combi that wanted to charge us $3 extra for our bags after we'd been traveling for 5 minutes, which Michelle flatly refused to pay).

Alongside the 11m high Great Enclosure wall

The Great Zimbabwe Ruins National Monument Park had one entry fee that we could use for however long we wanted. So knowing that we would be there for a couple of nights we squeezed in a quick visit into the ruins for an hour or so before sunset.  The Ruins are the largest ruins in Africa south of the Pyramids which is pretty impressive.  The town was built and inhabited between 1200 AD and 1500 AD, with three separate locations.  The Hill Complex, the Valley Complex and the Great Enclosure.  The Hill Complex was where the King lived, and as you can guess, was high atop a hill.  The Valley Complex was where his 200 or so wives lived, with his guestimated 2500 children!  Then the Great Enclosure was where his first wife - the Queen - lived, near the Valley Complex, and taught the daughters pre-marital lessons.
 

The solid Tower inside the Great Enclosure

I mentioned in a previous blog, that the name of the Zimbabwe Ruins was derived from the phrase "dzimba dza mabwe", meaning 'houses of stone'.  These houses of stone were built using no mortar, just granite chunks (mined by building a fire on large boulders and then pouring cold water to make it crack) placed on top of each other and wedged into place.  The largest of the buildings is the circular Great Enclosure and at it's highest, the walls are 11m tall, with a thickness of 6m at the bottom and 4m at the top.  Massive walls, and the best preserved structure in the city!!!  It contained a curious structure, that looked like a granary tower approx. 10m high, but seemed to serve no purpose other than to show wealth or possibly just a phallic symbol to show power. It was completely solid, so of no internal use.  It is a symbol of the park.  We enjoyed some of the tall, skinny entrance corridors for their coolness on a super hot day!

The valley complex was a series of ruined walls with on complete structures but some super old aloe vera plants scattered throughout the walls added some character. 

On top of the Hill Complex, in amongst the big boulders

A walk up to the Hill Complex was tricky along the ancient trail.  At times, the path was only 50cm wide, and between two large boulders.  This was a good defense mechanism, as attackers could only approach single file.  We were surprised to find a series of complex paths and walls up on top.  You could not tell from below how extensive the hill complex was.  Fascinating to walk through the old paths that the king must have passed along.  The hilltop was a series of big boulders that the buildings were intertwined with.  You could climb on top for great views, or hole up in the 'echo' cave that the the king used to call down to the valley from.  It was here that he could call a particular wife up to 'visit' him, as he had a view of the valley below.  I guess he could also check that none of the 200 wives were fooling around on him!!

View of the huge Great Enclosure from on top the Hill Complex

It was nice to have some time to hang around and really soak the place in, not to mention, finally having a chance to see something in Zimbabwe that didn't drive us to the poorhouse.  *Stub









Things Michelle will remember:
1. The family that was crammed next to her in the back of the comb- van. Along with Michelle there were three adults and three children. To make things more comfortable, the Dad would pass one of the kids to sit on Michelle's lap which made the journey even hotter and stickier. The two year old and four year old alternated sitting on her lap falling asleep and upon waking would start crying to see a scary white person holding them!
2. Our Ruins guide, Lovemore, from whom we learnt a lot about the ruins and felt like we got good value for our money - finally!
3. Chilling out high on the Bird's back in the ritual area and admiring the view of the valley below.
4. The heat was incredibly intense and verging on unbearable even at 8 in the morning. Then a storm came through that looked like it would blow our tent away (but thankfully didn't) and was followed by a more comfortable temperature.