Land of Strangers

This guide focuses on four of the more spectacular and interesting of the stone-built ruins found in the Midlands province in Zimbabwe. Collectively, these and several others in the area formed a network of towns ruled first by the Torwa and then the Rozvi peoples from the late 16th to 19th centuries, when they were conquered by the Ndebele people during the mfecane upheavals, caused by the violent founding of the Zulu kingdom. The cluster of ruins in the Midlands area of Zimbabwe is the densest known in the region and, at the time of writing, was deservedly on the Tentative List for inclusion on the UNESCO World Heritage List.