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The Stone City: Great Zimbabwe
A kingdom built without mortar
About this story
Rising above the savanna between the 11th and 15th centuries, Great Zimbabwe's walls were built entirely without mortar, stone fitted to stone by master builders. At its height it was home to as many as 18,000 people and anchored a trade network reaching the Indian Ocean coast.
Transcript preview
Narrator: Stone by stone, without a drop of mortar, an empire's capital rose from the highveld.
Narrator: Its walls curved for hundreds of meters, enclosing royal courts hidden from the world outside.
Narrator: Chinese porcelain and Persian glass beads found in its ruins tell of trade reaching the Indian Ocean.
Narrator: Today the ruins still stand — a reminder of an African kingdom built entirely on its own terms.
Chapters
Author
Fatima Hassan
Sudan
Historian focused on Nile Valley civilisations.
