Empire · 1220–1450 · Southern Africa

Kingdom of Zimbabwe (Great Zimbabwe)

Also known as Great Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe was the capital of a Shona-speaking kingdom on the southern African plateau, in the country now named after it. It grew after the earlier state of Mapungubwe in the 13th century, prospering by controlling gold mined on the plateau and large cattle herds, and trading through Swahili ports such as Sofala and Kilwa, which brought glass beads, Persian pottery and Chinese porcelain.

Its rulers built immense dry-stone walls without mortar, including the Great Enclosure, with walls up to 11 metres high; at its height the city may have housed up to 10,000 people, though older estimates reach 18,000. In the 15th century the site was largely abandoned, perhaps because of overgrazing, exhausted resources and a shift of the gold trade northward, where the Mutapa and Torwa states took over.

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Years

1220–1450

Capital

Great Zimbabwe

Greatest extent

1350, about 50,000 km²

Region

Southern Africa

Core of the Zimbabwe plateau; the state centred on Great Zimbabwe probably covered c. 50,000 km²