Great Zimbabwe
Great Zimbabwe is the largest stone structure of precolonial Southern Africa. Major construction on the city lasted from the 11th century until the 15th century. It was abandoned in the 16th or 17th century:
The edifices were erected by the ancestors of the Shona people, currently located in the country of Zimbabwe:
Construction without mortar
The colonial government pressured archaeologists to deny that the structures were built by indigenous Africans, because acknowledging it would have dismantled their “civilizing mission” rationale:
Zimbabwe flag with soapstone bird
Archeologists debate the original state of the current ruins, but some are convinced these mortar-less granite structures could have looked like above or below:
