Antelope Park and Great Zimbabwe.

I had a few days at Antelope Park. Despite the name it is a lion refuge with 120 lions in large enclosures. There used to be a quarter of a million lions in Africa but now there are just a tenth of that number. Antelope Park had a breeding programme and a controversial release programme to establish new prides and to release them into the wild. It is controversial in that it is uncertain whether the pride can hunt for itself and whether the planned release areas have enough game to sustain the prides. However the camp site and buildings that make up the park where a wonderful and calm location. The main restaurant and bar building.

One of the shelters in the grounds.

 Another cafe building.

 A pavilion.

 One of the chalets looking like something out of the Lord of the Rings.

 Another chalet.

 The river that flows through the site.

 A row of rooms that can be rented.

 Some of the wildlife sitting in a tree waiting to bit up scraps from the restaurant.

 A view of the Grand Enclosure at Great Zimbabwe from the Hill Complex. Great Zimbabwe was a large trading nation that developed from the 11th century that covered an area of present day Zimbabwe and parts of Botswana and South Africa. It traded with Arab merchants who sailed down the east coast of Africa. Great Zimbabwe had several major rivers with alluvial gold. It is estimated that it exported 4,000 tons of gold by the 13th century when the rest of the world gold production between 1000 and 1600 AD was just 2,000 tons.

 A view of the outside of the walls of the Hill Complex from where the king ruled his empire.

 Te entrance to the Hill Complex, just wide enough for one person.

 One of the buildings within the complex. Regrettably no written records survive so what happened in each of the buildings is guess work.

 All the stones are beautifully laid but without any cement or mortar.

 A detail of the pattern in the external wall of the Great Enclosure.

 Sone of the passages in the Great Enclosure.

 A conical tower built of solid stone that stands higher than the external wall perhaps for a lookout or just to show off their building skills.

 A closer view of the tower.

 One of the entrances to the Great Enclosure.