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1,200 Years Ago in South Africa

The first stone structures at Great Zimbabwe were constructed around 1000 AD. Zimbabwe is a word of the Shona language meaning "stone enclosure". It is also gave its name to the modern south African nation of Zimbabwe. The site covers 60 acres, the most dense collection of ruins, although some 200 ancient stone structures are scattered throughout southern Zimbabwe.

Around 850 AD, the Shona people move into the region, displacing earlier Bantu groups, with the Karanga clan living at Great Zimbabwe itself. The Karanga were expert metal workers, and a trade in gold, iron and copper was soon thriving with the Swahili and Arabs on the coast. The Karangas had a superior skill in political organization, and from a single clan, like the Romans, in time came to dominate all the surrounding peoples. In 943, the Arab voyager Al Masudi visits parts of east and south Africa and describes this powerful inland kingdom rich in gold and ivory.

Bantu clans, the ancestors of seSotho and seZulu cultures, spread south of Limpopo River.

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