Mapungubwe - Lost Kingdoms of Africa - Great Zimbabwe - BBC 4

wow look at that and there is what remains of the golden Kingdom of MPP and Goodway today maping Goodway is part of South Africa's national park system the heart of the Old Kingdom is M and goway Hill park ranger Cedric sat laaco has agreed to show me around this is uh the hill itself M Hill where people lived about a thousand years ago wow archaeologists believe that map and goodway's reach spread across southern Africa from the 11th to the 13th centuries and that after the kingdom collapsed some of its people may have headed north and

found Great Zimbabwe it was one of the most complex Societies in southern Africa with a rigid division between the king his ministers and his subjects the King was buried here with lot of artifacts uh if you look at the hill itself I mean why the people will choose to live up here is because um if you look around it I mean it's just sheer Rock I mean there's no way that you can be able to can access this hill there's only one way up to the top the Kingdom's rulers kept the hill to themselves ordinary

members of map and Goodway Society were not allowed in even in modern times the hills still holds mystical powers to the people here most of the people long back used to believe that you wouldn't even look at the hill itself they were even scared to look at the hill I mean even the person who brought the first people uh uh to discover the site when he had to turn his back and sort of like point it there is the hill right behind me and I'm not going there really yeah so so what might happen to

you if you did look at the hill what what I mean um some people believed that you would you would go blind or lose your life or die or something like that [Music] wasn't so bad eh well this view completely makes up for yeah any tiredness I feel about that clim it's just glorious and suddenly you understand why you would want to build up [Music] here archaeologists have found remnants of the site of a grand Stone enclosure here with Huts for servants and a wooden Palisade built around the summit for privacy and defense it was

also where MPP and goodway's rulers lived and died with their gold this is exactly where uh that uh little G Rhino came [Music] from just from around here it's exactly where it was discovered and also to indicate to you that from from the bush back there up to here this whole area this was a burial site these people were buried in a sitting position facing west and each one of them was buried wearing these golden bracelets and they was as well buried with clay pots which were filled with thousands and thousands of golden glass beads

so Cedric why was this site so important m is the First Southern African Kingdom meaning this is exactly where Kingdom ship started in southern Africa I mean of all this uh kingdoms which are still existence I me today I mean this is exactly where it all started [Music] the wooden and stone structures which would have stood here have long since disappeared but the gold artifacts in ptor testify to this ancient Kingdom's existence its power and its wealth