Great Zimbabwe, the stone capital of a Shona kingdom

People had lived here long before — radiocarbon dates point to continuous settlement from the 12th century — and the start of building in stone is dated variously from the 11th to the 13th century. By about 1250 Great Zimbabwe was an important trading centre, and around 1300, as Mapungubwe declined, it became the main one in the interior, sending gold and ivory to the coast through Swahili ports such as Sofala. Chinese ceramics, among them Longquan celadon and blue-and-white porcelain of the 14th and 15th centuries, glass beads and coins from Arabia have been found at the site. The walls of the Great Enclosure, built without mortar, date from the 13th and 14th centuries; older estimates put the population at up to 18,000, a newer survey at no more than 10,000. The most important finds are eight birds carved in soapstone; the modern state of Zimbabwe is named after the site.

From the early 15th century long-distance trade declined; around 1450, according to oral tradition, Nyatsimba Mutota of the royal family led part of the people north, and by the 16th century the Mutapa state and the kingdom of Butua centred on Khami had replaced Great Zimbabwe as the leading powers, although the site was probably inhabited into the 17th century. Colonial-era writers, from Karl Mauch (1871) to Theodore Bent (1890s), credited the ruins to foreign builders; David Randall-MacIver (1905–1906) and Gertrude Caton-Thompson (1929) showed that they were African and medieval. Great Zimbabwe was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.