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Great Zimbabwe is a ruined city in the southeastern hills of Zimbabwe near Lake Mutirikwe and the town of Masvingo. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe during the country's Late Iron Age. Construction on the monument by ancestors of the Shona people began in the 11th century and continued until the 15th century,〔〔 spanning an area of which, at its peak, could have housed up to 18,000 people. It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Great Zimbabwe served as a royal palace for the Zimbabwean monarch and would have been used as the seat of political power. One of its most prominent features were the walls, some of which were over five metres high and which were constructed without mortar. Eventually the city was abandoned and fell into ruin. The earliest known written mention of the ruins was in 1531 by Vicente Pegado, captain of the Portuguese garrison of Sofala, who recorded it as ''Symbaoe''. The first European visit may have been made by the Portuguese traveler António Fernandes in 1513-1515, who crossed twice and reported in detail the region of present-day Zimbabwe (including the Shona kingdoms) and also fortified centers in stone without mortar. However, passing en route a few miles north and about 35 miles south of the site, he did not make a reference to the Great Zimbabwe riddle.〔() Rhodesiana: ''The Pionneer Head''〕〔Oliver, Roland & Anthony Atmore (1975). Medieval Africa 1250–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 738〕 The first confirmed visits by Europeans were in the late 19th century, with investigations of the site starting in 1871. Later, studies of the monument were controversial in the archaeological world, with political pressure being put upon archaeologists by the government of Rhodesia to deny its construction by native African people. Great Zimbabwe has since been adopted as a national monument by the Zimbabwean government, and the modern independent state was named for it. The word "Great" distinguishes the site from the many hundreds of small ruins, now known as 'zimbabwes', spread across the Zimbabwe Highveld.〔M. Sibanda, H. Moyana et al. 1992. ''The African Heritage. History for Junior Secondary Schools. Book 1''. Zimbabwe Publishing House. ISBN 978-0-908300-00-6〕 There are 200 such sites in southern Africa, such as Bumbusi in Zimbabwe and Manyikeni in Mozambique, with monumental, mortarless walls; Great Zimbabwe is the largest of these.〔 ==Name== (詳細はShona name of the ruins, first recorded in 1531 by Vicente Pegado, Captain of the Portuguese Garrison of Sofala. Pegado noted that "The natives of the country call these edifices ''Symbaoe'', which according to their language signifies 'court'". The name contains ''dzimba'', the Shona term for "houses". There are two theories for the etymology of the name. The first proposes that the word is derived from ''Dzimba-dza-mabwe'', translated from the Karanga dialect of Shona as "large houses of stone" (''dzimba'' = plural of ''imba'', "house"; ''mabwe'' = plural of ''bwe'', "stone").〔. See also 〕 A second suggests that Zimbabwe is a contracted form of ''dzimba-hwe,'' which means "venerated houses" in the Zezuru dialect of Shona, as usually applied to the houses or graves of chiefs.〔Garlake (1973) 13〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Great Zimbabwe」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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