Located near the city of Mosvingo in Central Zimbabwe are the ruins of one of the greatest civilizations of the Middle Ages.

When European explorers first discovered the ruins, they simply couldn't believe that it was built by Native Africans.

Subsequent archaeological investigations

showed not just that they were wrong, but that the civilization which was there

had contact with some of the furthest reaches of the known world. Learn more

about Great Zimbabwe, one of Africa's greatest empires, on this episode of

Everything Everywhere Daily. I should probably start by describing exactly what Great Zimbabwe is before I get into the history of the site.

The site known as Great Zimbabwe is a stone ruin located in Central Zimbabwe about 270 kilometers or 170 miles due south of the capital of

Harare.

The main building at the site is a large circular stone structure with a circumference of 250 meters or 820 feet that

served as the centerpiece of a larger city of about 7.2 square

kilometers or 2.8 square miles. It is estimated that the city could have had a population of as many as 20,000 people

at its peak. The word Zimbabwe is from the Shoah language and it's usually defined to mean

House of Stone.

The modern country of Zimbabwe takes its name from Great Zimbabwe.

The term Great Zimbabwe can be a bit confusing, as it's referring to a specific building,

the ancient city where that building resides, and the entire kingdom or empire.

Usually when telling the story of some ancient place, I'll usually start right at the beginning.

To understand Great Zimbabwe, however, I think it's most instructive to start near the end when it was discovered by Europeans.

And it isn't because the European discovery was important in terms of the Zimbabwe civilization,

but rather because the first Europeans got the story so wrong

and their beliefs shaded the discussion of Great Zimbabwe for centuries.

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