Great Zimbabwe (Civ6)/Civilopedia

According to one set of legends, Great Zimbabwe was the palace complex of the Queen of Sheba. According to another set, it was where the laborers of King Solomon’s Mines – which were thought nearby by a generation of deluded treasure hunters – relaxed during their time off. In point of boring fact, it was the capital city, eventually covering some 1700 acres with a peak population of around 18 thousand, of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe which arose in 1220 AD and was gone by 1450 AD. Built entirely of stone (quite a feat in the jungle), Great Zimbabwe was soon afterward abandoned and fell into ruin. The earliest known record of the ruins is by the Portuguese officer Vicente Pegado, written in 1531. He makes mention of great walls, made of chiseled stone fitted without mortar. The ruins lie in three groupings: the Hill Complex, the Valley Complex, and the Great Enclosure, where the majority of the archaeological artifacts have been found: soapstone figurines, gold beads, copper ingots, bronze spearheads, jeweled pendants and bracelets, and much else. So, maybe those treasure hunters weren’t so deluded after all.