Great Zimbabwe

This is a city of the Sona, an African nation. The enclosure, which is marked by a thick granite wall, is a powerful structuring agent in this composition. The type frequently used in African tribal architecture, in the kraals or the in the villages (e.g., Ba-ila) of the Ila tribe, is modified to the extent that, instead of the timber and adobe used all over this continent, the wall here was built from curved and carved, granite oblong blocks with a width reaching 1.5 metres. Corrals and residential buildings adhere to the wall, which was built without mortar or cement and ranges 5 and 11 metres in height. The tribe, specialised in primarily nomadic animal husbandry, used this sheltered courtyard as an assembly area and refuge. Narrow circulation passages wind between the fort-like external walls and the corrals, articulating the garden.