<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> (edit on Wikidata) </Td> </Tr> <P> Great Zimbabwe is an ancient city in the south - eastern hills of Zimbabwe near Lake Mutirikwe and the town of Masvingo . It was the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe during the country's Late Iron Age . Construction on the monument began in the 11th century and continued until the 15th century . The most widely - accepted modern archaeological theory is that the edifices were erected by the ancestral Shona . The stone city spans an area of 7.22 square kilometres (1,780 acres) which, at its peak, could have housed up to 18,000 people . It is recognised as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO . </P> <P> Great Zimbabwe is believed to have served as a royal palace for the local monarch . As such, it would have been used as the seat of political power . Among the edifice's most prominent features were its walls, some of which were over five metres high . They were constructed without mortar (dry stone). Eventually, the city was abandoned and fell into ruin . </P> <P> The earliest known written mention of the Great Zimbabwe ruins was in 1531 by Vicente Pegado, captain of the Portuguese garrison of Sofala, who recorded it as Symbaoe . The first confirmed visits by Europeans were in the late 19th century, with investigations of the site starting in 1871 . Later, studies of the monument were controversial in the archaeological world, with political pressure being put upon archaeologists by the government of Rhodesia to deny its construction by native African people . Great Zimbabwe has since been adopted as a national monument by the Zimbabwean government, and the modern independent state was named for it . The word great distinguishes the site from the many hundreds of small ruins, now known as "zimbabwes", spread across the Zimbabwe Highveld . There are 200 such sites in southern Africa, such as Bumbusi in Zimbabwe and Manyikeni in Mozambique, with monumental, mortarless walls; Great Zimbabwe is the largest of these . </P>

What was the purpose of the great enclosure at great zimbabwe
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