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Great Zimbabwe
Great Zimbabwe is a medieval city in the south-eastern hills of Zimbabwe near Lake Mutirikwi and the town of Masvingo. It is thought to have been the capital of a great kingdom during the country's Late Iron Age about which little is known. Construction on the city began in the 9th century and continued until it was abandoned in the 15th century. The edifices are believed to have been erected by the ancestral Shona. The stone city spans an area of and could have housed up to 18,000 people at its peak, giving it a population density of approximately 2,500 per square kilometre. It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Great Zimbabwe is believed to have served as a royal palace for the local monarch. As such, it would have been used as the seat of political power. Among the edifice's most prominent features were its walls, some of which are eleven metres high. They were constructed without mortar (dry stone). Eventually, the city was abandoned and fell into ruin. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kingdom Of Zimbabwe
The Kingdom of Zimbabwe (c. 1220–1450) was a medieval Shona ( Karanga) kingdom located in modern-day Zimbabwe. Its capital, today's Masvingo (meaning fortified), which is commonly called Great Zimbabwe, is the largest stone structure in precolonial Southern Africa. This kingdom came about after the collapse of the Kingdom of Mapungubwe. Name The name "Zimbabwe" stems from a Shona term for Great Zimbabwe, a medieval city in the country's south-east whose remains are now a protected site. Two different theories address the origin of the word. Many sources hold that "Zimbabwe" derives from ''dzimba-dza-mabwe'', translated from the Karanga dialect of Shona as "houses of stones" (''dzimba'' = plural of ''imba'', "house"; ''mabwe'' = plural of ''bwe'', "stone"). The Kalanga-speaking Shona people live around Great Zimbabwe in the modern-day province of Masvingo. Archaeologist Peter Garlake claims that "Zimbabwe" represents a contracted form of ''dzimba-hwe'', which means "v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masvingo Province
Masvingo is a Provinces of Zimbabwe, province in southeastern Zimbabwe. It has a population of 1.485 million as of the Zimbabwean census, 2012, 2012 census, ranking fifth out of Zimbabwe's ten provinces. Established as Victoria Province by the British South Africa Company, it was one of the five original provinces of Southern Rhodesia. In 1982, two years after Zimbabwean independence, it was renamed Masvingo Province. The province is divided into seven districts, including Masvingo District, which contains the provincial capital Masvingo City. Masvingo Province is bordered by Matabeleland South Province to the southwest, Midlands Province to the northwest, Manicaland Province to the northeast, and Mozambique to the southeast. It has an area of , equal to 14.48% of the total area of Zimbabwe. It is the third-largest in area of Zimbabwe's provinces, after Matabeleland North Province, Matabeleland North and Mashonaland West Province, Mashonaland West. A diverse province, the Shona p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Monument
A national monument is a monument constructed in order to commemorate something of importance to national heritage, such as a country's founding, independence, war, or the life and death of a historical figure. The term may also refer to a specific monument status, such as a national heritage site, by reason of their cultural importance rather than age (''see National Monument (United States)''). National monument status is usually granted to colossal symbols of national identity. Overview Structures or areas deemed to be of national importance and afforded protection by the state are part of a country's cultural heritage. These national heritage sites are often called something different per country and are listed by national conservation societies. Romania has listed at least one plant as a national monument, ''Nymphaea lotus'' f. ''thermalis''. Example National monument * National Monument (Bosnia and Herzegovina) *The National Monument (Central Jakarta) * Maqam Ec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
João De Barros
João de Barros () (1496 – 20 October 1570), called the ''Portuguese Livy'', is one of the first great Portuguese historians, most famous for his '' Décadas da Ásia'' ("Decades of Asia"), a history of the Portuguese in India, Asia, and southeast Africa. Early years Educated in the palace of Manuel I of Portugal, he composed, at the age of twenty, a romance of chivalry, the ''Chronicle of the Emperor Clarimundo'', in which he is said to have had the assistance of Prince John (later King John III). Upon ascending the throne, King John III awarded Barros the captaincy of the fortress of St George of Elmina, to which he proceeded in 1524. In 1525, he obtained the post of treasurer of the India House, which he held until 1528. To escape from an outbreak of bubonic plague in 1530 Barros moved from Lisbon to his country house near Pombal, where he finished a moral dialogue, ''Rho pica Pneuma'', which was praised by Juan Luís Vives. On his return to Lisbon in 1532 the king ap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mapungubwe
The Kingdom of Mapungubwe (or Maphungubgwe) (c. 1075–c. 1220) was a medieval state in South Africa located at the confluence of the Shashe and Limpopo rivers, south of Great Zimbabwe. The name is derived from either TjiKalanga and Tshivenda. The name might mean "Hill of Jackals" or "stone monuments". The kingdom was the first stage in a development that would culminate in the creation of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe in the 13th century, and with gold trading links to Rhapta and Kilwa Kisiwani on the African east coast. The Kingdom of Mapungubwe lasted about 80 years, and at its height the capital's population was about 5000 people. This archaeological site can be attributed to the BuKalanga Kingdom, which comprised the Kalanga people from northeast Botswana and western/central southern Zimbabwe, the Nambiya south of the Zambezi Valley, and the Vha Venda in the northeast of South Africa. The Mapungubwe Collection of artifacts found at the archaeological site is housed in the Map ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ziwa
Ziwa is an archaeological site in Nyanga District, Zimbabwe, containing the remains of a vast late Iron Age agricultural settlement dated to the 15th century. Ziwa was declared a National Monument in 1946 and is currently under consideration for World Heritage listing. The site contains a large variety of stonework structures including stone terraces running along contours of hills and steep landscapes. Archaeological investigations have also uncovered important aspects of pottery and rock art. Before the declaration of the site as a National Monument, Ziwa had been part of the commercial farms area and was thus under private ownership. A great deal of damage or degradation of antiquities may have been wrought during this period as the farmer used the property as a cattle ranch. Currently a site museum (with tourist facilities such as camping, guided tours, walking trails, bird viewing, etc.) has been established to represent the Ziwa heritage and other archaeological sites in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gokomere
Gokomere is a place in Zimbabwe, from Masvingo, known for its rock art and pottery traditions dating from 300 to 650 AD. The ancient Bantu people who inhabited the area of Great Zimbabwe around the 4th century AD probably built the complex between 1000 and 1200 AD. The Gokomere traded via ancient trading routes over the Chimanimani Mountains on the current Zimbabwe-Mozambique border with the Swahili civilization on the Kenyan and Tanzanian coast. This group gave rise to the ma Shona and the wa Rozwi tribes. They may also comprise the majority of the African ancestry of the Lemba people, who claim descent from the ancient Jews via Sena in Yemen, with some genetic evidence to back this up. The modern descendants of the waRozwi are called the Barotse. They speak the Karanga language and second languages including English in Zimbabwe and Sena, Ndau dialect of Shona, and Portuguese in Mozambique. Gokomere also refers to a school located close to the town of Masvingo Masvin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shona Language
Shona (; sn, chiShona) is a Bantu language of the Shona people of Zimbabwe. It was codified by the colonial government in the 1950s. According to ''Ethnologue'', Shona, comprising the Zezuru, Korekore and Karanga dialects, is spoken by about 7.5 million people. The Manyika dialect of Shona is listed separately by ''Ethnologue'', and is spoken by 1,025,000 people. The larger group of historically related languages—called Shona languages by linguists—also includes Ndau (Eastern Shona) and Kalanga (Western Shona). Instruction Shona is a written standard language with an orthography and grammar that was codified during the early 20th century and fixed in the 1950s. In the 1920s, the Rhodesian administration was faced with the challenge of preparing schoolbooks and other materials in the various languages and dialects and requested the recommendation of South African linguist Clement Doke. The first novel in Shona, Solomon Mutswairo's ''Feso'', was published in 1957. Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
