Southern Africa · Post-Classical Era
Kingdom of Zimbabwe
Sub-Saharan Africa's great stone city
1220 CE – 1450 CE · 230 years
A southern African kingdom whose massive dry-stone enclosures were built without any mortar, still standing today.
Where it sits on the calendar
Government
Divine kingship
Writing system
No writing system known
Estimated peak population
18,000
How it ended
Climate shift or drought
Traits
Monumental architecture Bronze metallurgy Iron metallurgy Long-distance trade Urban planning Irrigation agriculture Standing army Codified law Astronomical record-keeping Seafaring
How Kingdom of Zimbabwe ended
Likely declined due to soil exhaustion, deforestation, and a shift of trade routes away from the city.
See other civilizations that fell the same way →Notable for
- Great Zimbabwe's dry-stone walls built without mortar
- Long-distance trade reaching the Swahili coast and beyond
- Gold and ivory export economy
Who else was alive at the same time
6 other civilizations in this dataset overlap with Kingdom of Zimbabwe's 230-year span.
See every overlap involving Kingdom of Zimbabwe →