Einsteiger

  • Kilwa Kisiwani, a Swahili trading city

    Kilwa Kisiwani, on an island off the coast of Tanzania, was one of the great Swahili port cities. It reached its height in the 13th and 14th centuries, when gold and ivory from the interior were traded across the Indian Ocean for goods from Arabia, India and China. Kilwa minted its own coins from the 11th to the 14th centuries. The traveller Ibn Battuta visited in 1331–1332. Its decline began after the Portuguese built a fort there in the 16th century.

  • The rock-hewn churches of Lalibela

    In the mountains of Ethiopia, eleven medieval churches were hewn out of the living rock rather than built from blocks: doors, windows, columns and roofs were all cut from the same stone, with trenches and passages between them. Their making is attributed to King Lalibela, who sought to create a ‘New Jerusalem’; UNESCO dates them to the 12th–13th centuries. Lalibela remains a living place of Ethiopian Christian pilgrimage.

  • The Kingdom of Aksum

    Aksum, in the highlands of northern Ethiopia, was the centre of a kingdom that UNESCO dates from the 1st to the 8th century CE. It traded across the Red Sea through the port of Adulis and was among the most powerful states between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia. Its monuments include carved stone stelae, the tallest still standing over 23 metres. Stone inscriptions of King Ezana from the 4th century use Greek, Sabaean and Ge’ez, the classical language of Ethiopia.

  • Great Zimbabwe

    Great Zimbabwe, near Masvingo in present-day Zimbabwe, is the stone-built capital of a Shona state. UNESCO dates its building to about 1100–1450 CE. The site has three parts: the Hill Ruins, long considered a royal centre; the Great Enclosure, an elliptical wall of cut granite from the 14th century; and the Valley Ruins. Great Zimbabwe was an important trading centre. A legend linking it to the Queen of Sheba is only a legend: the city is the work of the Shona people’s ancestors.