On the highveld of southern Africa stand the largest stone structures south of the Sahara — walls eleven meters high, built without mortar, by a Shona civilization that traded gold to the Indian Ocean. Colonial archaeologists refused to believe Africans built them. The stones disagreed.
Great Zimbabwe ★ Kilwa Sofala Mutapa Limpopo Greatest extent — stylized map c. 1220 City founded 1450 City abandoned 1980 Zimbabwe independent Rise · zenith · fall The rise Great Zimbabwe grew from the cattle wealth and gold trade of the Shona peoples, at the point where the interior’s riches met the coast’s merchants. Gold and ivory flowed east to the Swahili ports — Kilwa, Sofala — and onward to Arabia, Persia, and China; glass beads, porcelain, and cloth flowed back. The city’s rulers taxed and organized this commerce, and the surplus paid for stone on a scale the region had never seen.
