Khami

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**Khami Ruins National Monument**¹
**UNESCO World Heritage Site**

State Party	Zimbabwe
Type	Cultural
Criteria	iii, iv
Identification	#365
Region²	Africa
Inscription History
Formal Inscription:	1986 10th WH Committee Session
WH link:	http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/365
1 Name as officially inscribed on the WH List 2 As classified officially by UNESCO

Khami was a city in southern Africa, in what is now western and central Zimbabwe. It is located 22kilometers west of the modern city of Bulawayo, capital of the province of Matabeleland North. Its ruins are now a national monument in Zimbabwe. Khami is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1986.

Khami was the capital of the Torwa dynasty from 1450 until 1683.In 1683, it was ransacked by Changamire Dombo who led an army of rebels from the Munhumutapa State. Exacavations seem to show that the site was not occupied after the Rozvi too over. The Rozvi made another Khami phase site, Danamombe (Dhldhlo), their new capital.

The city of Khami had seven built up areas occupied by the royal family with open areas in the valley occupied by the commoners. The ruins include a royal enclosureor Hill Complex, which had to be on higher ground than an other building stone walls and hut platforms, and also a Christian cross believed to have been placed by a contemporary missionary. There are also ruins on the eastern side of the Khami River. Other platforms are believed to have been cattle kraals and a retaining wall with a chequered pattern. Recent excavations (2000-2006)have revealed that the walls of the western parts of the Hill Complex were all decorated in checker, herringbone, cord, as well as variagated stone blocks.

Its architecture is an innovation from Great Zimbabwe. This innovation arose out the environment in which the city was built. With Matopan granite which harder to quarry it was difficult to get flat stone blocks to build free standing walls. The stones they got were from parent rock that exfoliates like onions following the circular nature of the rock. This was suitable for building platforms but not for free staninding walls. There were also no flat hills from which to build so the broken Matopan environment had to tamed by filling up the areas in between the boulders with stones and soil.