Matendera ruins
The ruin lies on the summit of a low granite hill, more or less bare of vegetation, and consists of a roughly oval enclosure bounded by a substantial stone wall built of granite blocks laid without mortar.
The Matendera Ruins are a replica of the Zimbabwe Ruins with an extensive and impressive horse-shoe shaped enclosure located on a low lying dwala south of Buhera. The site is the biggest in the district and has architectural features similar to Great Zimbabwe.
The area has one of the largest concentrations of stone-built monuments in the country
The wall is continuous except to the north-east where there is a considerable gap which appears to have formed the entrance. On the south-western face of the girdle wall is good examples of wall decoration. The area within the outer walls is divided into separate enclosures and the remains of dagga hut foundations may be noted.
Gombe Ruins are located on a low hill north of Gudo Business Centre along the Murambinda-Birchenough Bridge Road. Several findings of decorated and un-decorated ceramics, glass and metal beads were excavated from the site. The houses with thick clay walls are uniquely Zimbabwean.
To date, the council has teamed up with the South African town of Makhado Local Municipality to woo tourists from across the Limpopo into the district.
With an estimated population of 250,000, Buhera District is one of the driest regions in Zimbabwe and is also the second poorest. There is very little employment in the area and most locals are subsistence farmers.
“We are developing tourism as another way of raising revenue. This is in line with our mission of facilitating and coordinating the provision of services in order to improve the living standards of people in the area,”
If you visit you will realize life here is still vibrant. This is in spite of the liquidity crisis, high unemployment and the economic slowdown that has rattled families and turned once stable communities upside-down across the country.
One cannot exhaust the array of attractions in Manicaland, where Buhera is situated. About 45 kilometres south of Murambinda is the breathtaking Matendera Ruins. The monument proudly sits on the summit of a centuries-old dwala that cuts an imposing figure over largely submissive mountain ranges bordering barren, rolling plains on its fringes.
Matendera is so majestic that once one gets a glimpse of it, they can easily ignore the extensive suffering and hunger evident across the populous communal lands in Chief Nyashanu’s area. In all directions, the expansive plains disappear where the undulating mountain ranges starts.There are remnants of the ruins that were the capital of several ancient towns that sprouted across Manicaland after the fall of Great Zimbabwe at least three centuries ago.
Nobody knows exactly when Matendera was built, who built it, or the kingdom that called the shots from this structure of immense historical significance. That the rulers were ancestors of present-day Shona people is no doubt. It resembles the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. A royal dosage of fine wind accompanied me up to the palace where I am convinced was one of the seats of a powerful kingdom. Walking past several ruins of round stone huts that must have been the residence of commoners, something struck my eye: It should have been the queen’s house.
The king would proudly walk down the hill to visit the queen. But he would call any beautiful girl he wanted up to the palace when and as he wished.
