Heritage · c. 13,000 years ago
Matobo's rock art spans 13,000 years.
Did you know that the granite domes of the Matobo Hills hold one of the densest concentrations of rock art in southern Africa, with San paintings that may be up to 13,000 years old?
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Heritage · c. 2,000 years ago
A Matobo cave named an ancient pottery style.
Did you know that Bambata Cave in the Matobo Hills gave its name to Bambata ware, some of the earliest pottery in southern Africa, made by herders and foragers roughly two thousand years ago?
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Heritage · c. 5th century
Iron Age farmers reached the plateau early.
Did you know that the Gokomere culture, named after a mission near Masvingo, marks the arrival of iron-working Bantu-speaking farmers on the Zimbabwe plateau in the first millennium AD, centuries before Great Zimbabwe rose?
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Heritage · 13th century
A gold-foil rhino from a royal grave.
Did you know that the famous Golden Rhinoceros of Mapungubwe, crafted around the 13th century from thin gold foil nailed over a wooden core, was found in a royal grave just south of Zimbabwe's Limpopo border?
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Records · 14th century
A huge stone wall built without mortar.
Did you know that the outer wall of Great Zimbabwe's Great Enclosure stands about 11 metres high and 250 metres long, built from close-fitted granite blocks without any mortar, making it the largest ancient structure south of the Sahara?
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Society · 14th century
A medieval city of perhaps 18,000.
Did you know that at its height in the 14th century Great Zimbabwe may have been home to as many as 18,000 people, making it one of the largest settlements in medieval sub-Saharan Africa?
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Economy · 14th–15th century
Chinese porcelain turned up on the plateau.
Did you know that archaeologists at Great Zimbabwe have found Chinese celadon, Persian pottery, Near Eastern glass and Indian Ocean beads, proof that the gold-rich kingdom traded through Swahili ports such as Kilwa?
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Heritage · c. 1450
Great Zimbabwe's patterned successor city.
Did you know that Khami, capital of the Torwa state after Great Zimbabwe declined, was built on terraced stone platforms decorated with chequered and herringbone patterns and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Bulawayo?
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Society · 1561
A missionary baptised a king, then died.
Did you know that the Portuguese Jesuit Gonçalo da Silveira baptised the Mutapa ruler in 1561, only to be strangled weeks later after court advisers accused him of being a spy and sorcerer?
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Economy · 1629
Mutapa became a Portuguese vassal in 1629.
Did you know that in 1629 the Mutapa ruler Mavura Mhande signed a treaty making his kingdom a vassal of Portugal, granting the Portuguese access to gold mines in return for their military backing?
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Firsts · 1693
Changamire Dombo expelled the Portuguese.
Did you know that in 1693 the Rozvi leader Changamire Dombo sacked the Portuguese trading fair at Dambarare and drove the Portuguese off the Zimbabwe plateau for good?
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Science · 1835
An eclipse dated the Ngoni crossing.
Did you know that the crossing of the Zambezi by Zwangendaba's Ngoni, who had marched through Zimbabwe during the Mfecane upheavals, is dated precisely by a solar eclipse seen on 20 November 1835?
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Society · c. 1838–1840
A Zulu general's breakaway kingdom.
Did you know that Mzilikazi, a former general of the Zulu king Shaka, led his Ndebele followers north across the Limpopo and founded a new kingdom in south-western Zimbabwe around 1838–1840?
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Geography · 1855
Livingstone renamed an already-named wonder.
Did you know that David Livingstone became the first European known to see Victoria Falls on 16 November 1855, naming it after Queen Victoria although locals already called it Mosi-oa-Tunya?
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Heritage · 1868
Rival founders rest in the same hills.
Did you know that the Ndebele founder-king Mzilikazi, who died in 1868, was buried in a cave tomb at Entumbane in the Matobo Hills, the same granite hills where Cecil Rhodes would later be buried?
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Language · 1870
Bulawayo's grim-sounding royal name.
Did you know that Lobengula named his royal town koBulawayo, often translated as 'the place of slaughter', and the city of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest, still carries that name today?
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Economy · 1888
Mineral rights traded for rifles and a steamboat.
Did you know that under the 1888 Rudd Concession Lobengula signed away mineral rights in exchange for 1,000 Martini–Henry rifles, 100,000 cartridges, £100 a month and a steamboat on the Zambezi?
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Firsts · 1890
A colonial fort became Harare.
Did you know that the Pioneer Column raised the Union Jack at Fort Salisbury on 12 September 1890, and the settlement they founded on the site is today Zimbabwe's capital, Harare?
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Myth or fact · 1893
A doomed patrol became settler legend.
Did you know that in December 1893 Major Allan Wilson's Shangani Patrol of about 34 men was wiped out by Ndebele warriors while pursuing Lobengula, becoming a legend of white Rhodesian folklore?
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Society · 1898
Her 'bones will rise' inspired a war.
Did you know that the spirit medium Mbuya Nehanda, hanged by the colonial authorities in 1898 for her role in the First Chimurenga, reportedly declared that her bones would rise again, a line later taken up by liberation fighters?
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Heritage · 1902
Rhodes lies on a sacred spirit hill.
Did you know that Cecil Rhodes, who died in 1902, was buried on the granite summit of Malindidzimu in the Matobo Hills, a hill sacred to local people whose name means 'dwelling place of the spirits'?
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Firsts · 1905
Rhodes wanted trains splashed by the falls.
Did you know that the Victoria Falls Bridge, opened in 1905, was built where Cecil Rhodes wanted trains to pass close enough to catch the spray, and was officially opened by George Darwin, son of Charles Darwin?
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Society · 1922
Rhodesia's settlers rejected South Africa.
Did you know that in a 1922 referendum Southern Rhodesia's white electorate voted by about 59 to 41 per cent against joining the Union of South Africa, choosing self-government under the British Crown instead?
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Nature · 1928
Wildlife park born from 'useless' land.
Did you know that Hwange, Zimbabwe's largest national park, began in 1928 as the Wankie Game Reserve on land considered too dry for farming, and its first warden Ted Davison started pumping water into its pans?
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Myth or fact · 1929
Proof that Africans built Great Zimbabwe.
Did you know that in 1929 archaeologist Gertrude Caton Thompson concluded that Great Zimbabwe was built by Africans, debunking settler myths of Phoenician or Arab builders that Rhodesian authorities kept promoting for decades?
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Society · 1930
Half the land for a tiny minority.
Did you know that the Land Apportionment Act of 1930 reserved about half of Southern Rhodesia's land for a white population of roughly 50,000 while over a million Africans were allotted the rest?
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Firsts · 1940
Allied pilots learned to fly over Rhodesia.
Did you know that during the Second World War Southern Rhodesia hosted the Rhodesian Air Training Group, which trained thousands of RAF and Allied pilots and aircrew under its clear African skies?
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Nature · 1958–1963
Thousands of animals saved from a flood.
Did you know that as Lake Kariba filled from 1958, rangers in Operation Noah rescued around 6,000 animals, from elephants to snakes, stranded on shrinking islands in the rising water?
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Firsts · 1965
The first UDI since 1776.
Did you know that Ian Smith's Unilateral Declaration of Independence was signed on 11 November 1965, Armistice Day, and was the first such break from Britain by a colony since the American declaration of 1776?
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Firsts · 1966
Rhodesia drew the UN's first mandatory sanctions.
Did you know that UN Security Council Resolution 232 of December 1966 imposed the first mandatory economic sanctions in the United Nations' history, targeting Ian Smith's Rhodesia?
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Society · 1966
A small clash marks the war's start.
Did you know that the Battle of Sinoia on 28 April 1966, in which seven ZANLA guerrillas were killed near Chinhoyi, is commemorated in Zimbabwe as the opening battle of the Second Chimurenga?
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Records · 1979
A country that lasted six months.
Did you know that Zimbabwe Rhodesia, with Abel Muzorewa as its first black prime minister, existed for only about six months in 1979 before the country reverted to British rule ahead of independence?
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Society · 1979
A rebel colony briefly returned to Britain.
Did you know that the December 1979 Lancaster House Agreement, negotiated in London, ended the Rhodesian Bush War and put Southern Rhodesia briefly back under direct British rule with Lord Soames as governor?
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Culture · 1980
Bob Marley sang at independence.
Did you know that Bob Marley performed at Zimbabwe's independence celebrations at Rufaro Stadium in April 1980, singing his song 'Zimbabwe', and reportedly paid much of the cost of the trip himself?
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Sport · 1980
Late-call hockey team won Olympic gold.
Did you know that Zimbabwe's women's hockey team, assembled only weeks before the 1980 Moscow Olympics after boycotts left gaps, won the gold medal, the country's first Olympic medal?
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Language · 1982
Salisbury became Harare in 1982.
Did you know that the capital Salisbury was renamed Harare on 18 April 1982, the second anniversary of independence, taking its name from the Shona chief Neharawa's settlement?
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Society · 1987
A party merger became a public holiday.
Did you know that the Unity Accord of 22 December 1987 merged Robert Mugabe's ZANU and Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU into ZANU–PF, a date Zimbabweans still mark as the Unity Day public holiday?
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Sport · 1992
A draw on Test cricket debut.
Did you know that Zimbabwe drew its very first Test cricket match, against India at Harare Sports Club in October 1992, becoming the ninth Test-playing nation?
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Society · 2000
Mugabe's first ballot-box defeat.
Did you know that in February 2000 voters rejected a government-backed draft constitution in a referendum, Robert Mugabe's first defeat at the ballot box since independence?
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Heritage · 2003
A stolen bird's half came home.
Did you know that the lower half of one of the soapstone Zimbabwe Birds, carried off to Germany in colonial times, was returned by a Berlin museum in 2003 and reunited with its upper part?
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Sport · 2004
Africa's most decorated Olympian.
Did you know that swimmer Kirsty Coventry won gold in the 200 metres backstroke at Athens 2004 and repeated the feat in Beijing 2008, finishing with seven Olympic medals, the most of any African athlete?
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Records · 2008
Prices doubled about every day.
Did you know that Zimbabwe's hyperinflation peaked in November 2008 at an estimated 79.6 billion per cent a month, meaning prices roughly doubled every day?
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Records · 2009
A banknote with fourteen zeros.
Did you know that in January 2009 Zimbabwe's central bank issued a 100 trillion dollar banknote, one of the highest face values ever printed, now prized by collectors as a curiosity?
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Economy · 2006–2009
Twenty-five zeros cut in three years.
Did you know that Zimbabwe lopped a total of 25 zeros off its dollar in three redenominations between 2006 and 2009 before abandoning it for the US dollar and the rand?
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Language · 2013
Sixteen official languages, including sign language.
Did you know that Zimbabwe's 2013 constitution recognises 16 official languages, including Shona, Ndebele, English, Tonga, Venda and even sign language, one of the highest counts of any country?
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Nature · 2015
One lion's death shook the world.
Did you know that Cecil the lion, a GPS-collared star of Hwange National Park, was killed by an American trophy hunter in July 2015, provoking global outrage and prompting several airlines to ban trophy shipments?
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Society · 2017
Resignation read out mid-impeachment.
Did you know that Robert Mugabe resigned on 21 November 2017 by a letter read out as parliament was debating his impeachment, ending 37 years in power at the age of 93?
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Firsts · 2018
The first post-Mugabe election.
Did you know that the July 2018 general election was the first since independence in 1980 without Robert Mugabe on the ballot, with Emmerson Mnangagwa narrowly winning the presidency?
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Nature · 2019
A cyclone struck the eastern mountains.
Did you know that Cyclone Idai in March 2019 caused flash floods and landslides that devastated Chimanimani district in Zimbabwe's eastern highlands, killing hundreds of people?
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Society · 2019
Mugabe was not buried at Heroes' Acre.
Did you know that Robert Mugabe died in a Singapore hospital in September 2019, aged 95, and was buried at his home village of Kutama rather than at the National Heroes' Acre?
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Economy · 2024
A new currency backed by gold.
Did you know that in April 2024 Zimbabwe launched the ZiG, or Zimbabwe Gold, a currency backed by gold and foreign reserves, its latest attempt at a stable national money since the 2008 collapse?
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Nature · 2024
Elephants culled amid a historic drought.
Did you know that during the severe 2024 drought Zimbabwe authorised the culling of 200 elephants to feed hungry communities, in a country home to roughly 100,000 elephants?
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Sport · 2025
The IOC's first female, first African president.
Did you know that Olympic swimmer Kirsty Coventry became President of the International Olympic Committee on 23 June 2025, the first woman and first African ever to hold the post?
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Nature ·
The world's largest sheet of falling water.
Did you know that Victoria Falls, called Mosi-oa-Tunya or 'the smoke that thunders', is about 1,708 metres wide and 108 metres high, forming the largest single sheet of falling water in the world?
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Records ·
The biggest man-made lake by volume.
Did you know that Lake Kariba, created by the Kariba Dam on the Zambezi, is the world's largest artificial lake and reservoir by volume, holding about 185 cubic kilometres of water?
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Myth or fact ·
A river god blamed for dam floods.
Did you know that the Tonga people of the Zambezi valley believe the river god Nyami Nyami, a serpent with a fish's head, caused the floods that wrecked the Kariba Dam works in 1957 and 1958?
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Nature ·
Elephant giant second only to Botswana.
Did you know that Hwange National Park alone supports tens of thousands of elephants and Zimbabwe as a whole has one of the largest elephant populations in Africa, second only to neighbouring Botswana?
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Nature ·
Trees that hoard water for millennia.
Did you know that African baobabs, common in Zimbabwe's hot lowlands, can store thousands of litres of water in their swollen trunks and some individual trees are well over a thousand years old?
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Geography ·
Zimbabwe's roof is in the east.
Did you know that Zimbabwe's highest point is Mount Nyangani at about 2,592 metres in the Eastern Highlands, while the nearby Chimanimani Mountains straddle the border with Mozambique?
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Language ·
Zimbabwe means 'houses of stone'.
Did you know that the name Zimbabwe comes from the Shona phrase dzimba dza mabwe, meaning 'houses of stone', a reference to the stone enclosures of Great Zimbabwe?
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Culture ·
A medieval carving flies on the flag.
Did you know that the Zimbabwe Bird on the national flag and coat of arms is based on soapstone birds carved at Great Zimbabwe, found nowhere else in the world?
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Culture ·
No sadza, no real meal.
Did you know that sadza, a stiff porridge of white maize meal eaten with the hands alongside relish, is so central to Zimbabwean life that people often say they have not eaten until they have had it?
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Geography ·
A near-miss four-country corner.
Did you know that landlocked Zimbabwe comes within about 150 metres of a four-country meeting point at Kazungula, where its border, Botswana, Zambia and Namibia almost touch on the Zambezi?
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Science ·
A 550 km rock seam of platinum.
Did you know that the Great Dyke, a 550-kilometre-long ribbon of ancient igneous rock running down the middle of Zimbabwe, holds some of the world's largest reserves of platinum-group metals?
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Culture ·
A thumb piano that summons ancestors.
Did you know that the mbira, a thumb piano with metal keys mounted on a wooden board, is played at Shona bira ceremonies to call ancestral spirits, and its music is recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage?
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