Significance Then...
The ruins of Great Zimbabwe are so remarkable that early Europeans could not believe they could have been built by Africans, and some of the reasons why it was so remarkable back then was:
- It is estimated that the central ruins and surrounding valley supported a population of 10,000 to 20,000.
- Great Zimbabwe was large enough to be called a town, or even a city, but this was urban living at its most basic and unhealthy.
- Great Zimbabwe is not well built: the stones were not selected and laid with consideration for their relative sizes; vertical joints often run continuously through three or more layers (they should be offset)... The space within the walls is very loosely filled.
- The effect of having so many people on a single site may easily be imagined. A great deal of the valley must have been trampled bare. The noise must have been tremendous. In certain weather conditions the smoke from hundreds if not thousands of cooking fires would have created conditions approaching that of smog
- .Among the gold mines of the inland plains between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers… [there is a] fortress built of stones of marvellous size, and there appears to be no mortar joining them
- The Great Enclosure is the largest single ancient structure in sub-Saharan Africa. Its outer wall is some 250 metres in circumference, with a maximum height of 11 metres. An inner wall runs along part of the outer wall forming a narrow parallel passage, 55 metres long, which leads to the Conical Tower