Great Zimbabwe · about 1100-1450

Great Zimbabwe: the city of stone

On a granite plateau in southern Africa, the ancestors of the Shona built huge walls of stone without mortar. Students explore a city that grew rich on cattle and gold, and the colonial myths that tried to deny who built it.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
10–13
On the map
3 steps, AD 1300 to AD 1500
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

On a granite plateau in southern Africa, the ancestors of the Shona built huge walls of stone without mortar. Students explore a city that grew rich on cattle and gold, and the colonial myths that tried to deny who built it.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Locate Great Zimbabwe between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers and its trade route to the coast at Sofala.
  • Describe the main parts of the site and how its walls were built.
  • Explain how archaeology proved that Africans built Great Zimbabwe and why some Europeans had claimed otherwise.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

AD 1300

Between two rivers

Open the map in 1300 and find the label Great Zimbabwe between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. Turn on Cities and find the stone city itself.

Open this view on the map
b

AD 1300

Road to the sea

Follow a path from Great Zimbabwe east to the Indian Ocean coast near Sofala. Gold and ivory went this way to Swahili traders. Find the coastal label further north. What does it call the coast?

Open this view on the map
c

AD 1500

After Great Zimbabwe

Drag the slider to 1500. The label Great Zimbabwe has gone. Which new state has taken its place on the plateau? Its kings later moved their center north towards the Zambezi.

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. The walls of Great Zimbabwe were built without mortar. How do you think builders made them stand for more than 600 years?
  2. Chinese porcelain and Persian pottery were found at Great Zimbabwe. How did they get there?
  3. Who do you think lived in the hilltop buildings, and who lived in the valley? What clues would you look for?
  4. European settlers once claimed Africans could not have built Great Zimbabwe. Why did they want to believe that, and how was it proven wrong?
  5. The country of Zimbabwe took its name from this city at independence in 1980. Why choose an old ruin as a national symbol?
4

Game round

10 min

No ruler of Great Zimbabwe is in Rule History. Play one round as Mansa Musa, a ruler of the same century who also grew rich from gold. Compare: how did each kingdom turn gold into power?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.