Day 150: La Rochelle – Great Zimbabwe

Great Zimbabwe. A national monument. A World Heritage Site. And one of the few historical sites we find on our trip to Africa.

The ruins cover an area of ​​approximately 27 square kilometers. Absolutely fascinating. It's not really known what motivated people to move this mass of stones. The complex was neither large enough to accommodate many people nor strategically important as a fortress or defense system. It may have originally been a ritual site and later the king's main seat (11th-15th centuries).

We'll explore the whole thing, starting with the newer section in the valley, the "Great Enclosure."

Layered walls about 6 meters thick, tapering to about 4 meters at the top, with a height of up to 11 meters and a total length of 255 meters. Round huts probably stood within the enclosure. Replicas of such round huts can be seen a little further into the valley.

We spend the evening chatting with Christina and Frank, two Berliners who have been traveling in Africa for 20 years.