Khami National Monument

Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
mid-15th century--mid-17th century
Of the 50 known archaeological settlement sites between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers, the ruins of Khami, capital of the Torwa state (successor to Great Zimbabwe), are the most important. Beginning around 1450, the settlement flourished as a trading post and missionary stop. Among the ruins archaeologists have found Ming porcelain, Portuguese imitations of seventeenth-century Chinese porcelain, and Spanish silver. Portuguese missionaries erected a monumental granite cross on a hillside. Khami's inhabitants occupied huts of cob work (an earth and straw mixture) surrounded by a serpentine series of granite walls. Many residences, interconnected via narrow passageways and galleries, featured decorative friezes in chevron and checkered patterns. With Watch listing in 1996, attention was brought to the site's crumbling, collapsing, bulging walls. These threats have intensified. Vegetation damage has been occurring--both from rampant growth as well as its hasty removal. Burrowing animals and trespassers foraging for firewood and building stones are further destabilizing the site. A strategic action plan for site protection and conservation has been prepared, but help is needed to put it into practice. Khami Ruins National Monument is on the World Heritage List.

Listed in 1996