The city of the Great Zimbabwe started off as a mere cattle village, built on the top of a hill overlooking the Zimbabwean plateau. The leaders of these Shona speaking people were very wealthy due to the cattle they controlled and only became more wealthy when the city was constructed. During the twelve century discovered and began to mine the rich gold veins from the plateau of Zimbabwe. By the thirteenth century the Village became a major trading post for gold, located between the plateau and its gold mines, and many African and Arab trading areas. This allowed it to be right i the center of the trade giving the Shona people immense wealth.
With the new wealth that the Shona people had received the leaders decided to turn what was once a small village into a mighty city with high stone walls and brilliant architecture. The stone walls also contributed to the name of this great empire as Zimbabwe is derived from dzimba dza mabwe which means "houses of stone". By the fourteenth century had such commercial power and military strength that it ruled over a state that ranged from
he Zambezi River in the north to the Limpopo River in the south and from the fringes of the Kalahari Desert in the west to the Inyanga, Vumba, and Chimanimani mountain ranges in the east.
IN the nineteenth century the ruins of the city were found by European explorers.
With the new wealth that the Shona people had received the leaders decided to turn what was once a small village into a mighty city with high stone walls and brilliant architecture. The stone walls also contributed to the name of this great empire as Zimbabwe is derived from dzimba dza mabwe which means "houses of stone". By the fourteenth century had such commercial power and military strength that it ruled over a state that ranged from
he Zambezi River in the north to the Limpopo River in the south and from the fringes of the Kalahari Desert in the west to the Inyanga, Vumba, and Chimanimani mountain ranges in the east.
IN the nineteenth century the ruins of the city were found by European explorers.