A city of stone
The capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe, which flourished between the 11th and 15th centuries, was a city built of immense granite walls. The entire site covers 7.22 square kilometers (2.79 square miles) and is the largest stone structure in precolonial Southern Africa. At its height, the city housed an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people. The name "Zimbabwe" itself is from a Shona phrase for "great houses of stone".
The city consists of three main areas: the Hill Complex, the Great Enclosure, and the Valley Ruins. The Hill Complex is the oldest section, with its first stones laid around 900 CE. The Great Enclosure is the largest structure, with its outer wall reaching heights of 11 meters (36 feet) and extending for approximately 250 meters (820 feet). The walls were built up to six meters wide at the base. All the structures at Great Zimbabwe were made from local granite, quarried and fitted together without any mortar. This dry-stone technique, relying on precisely shaped blocks and careful layering, has allowed the walls to stand for centuries. Inside the Great Enclosure stands the Conical Tower, a solid stone structure 9 meters (30 feet) high and 5.5 meters (18 feet) in diameter, its original purpose is unknown to archaeologists.