The Shona built Great Zimbabwe, a major stone city in southeastern Africa.
Great Zimbabwe flourished between roughly the eleventh and fifteenth centuries in what is now Zimbabwe. Its builders used carefully stacked granite blocks without mortar to create massive walls, enclosures and towers.
The site was the centre of a powerful Shona-speaking society linked to cattle keeping, farming and long-distance trade. Archaeological finds include Chinese and Persian ceramics, glass beads and coins from the Swahili coast, showing that Great Zimbabwe participated in Indian Ocean trade networks.
The name Zimbabwe is derived from a Shona expression commonly interpreted as “houses of stone.” European colonial writers once falsely claimed that Africans could not have built the ruins, but archaeological research established their African origin. Great Zimbabwe's Great Enclosure is one of the largest ancient structures south of the Sahara. The site became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.