Khami, also known as Khame, Kame, or Kami, is a ruined city located 22 kilometers west of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. It was once the capital of the Butua Kingdom, which was part of the Torwa dynasty. Today, Khami is a national monument and was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986.

Context

The settlement we see today developed from the architectural style that first appeared at Great Zimbabwe in the 13th century AD and from the Leopard's Kopje culture, which built rough stone platforms for houses. Khami represents a change in building methods that considered the environment. The area around Khami is near a river, very hot, and had issues with malaria. The stone used at Khami, called laminar granite, is different from the biotite stone found elsewhere in Zimbabwe. Mixed with dolerite, this stone was harder to cut and often produced irregular building materials. More than 60% of the stone quarried at Khami was not suitable for building. Because of this, builders had to shape the stones, but even then, they could not build strong, free-standing dry stone walls. Instead, they created retaining walls. Building platforms also made houses cooler than those in open areas and helped protect royalty from malaria. The walls at Khami are gravity retaining walls built without mortar. Unlike Great Zimbabwe, some walls at Khami have large foundation blocks that would have required at least four people to lift. Excavations show well-planned buildings, especially at the Hill Complex, which was the king’s home. The complex was built by first creating terraces of rough stone walls. These walls were then covered with smooth, dressed stone blocks. Each terrace had decorative patterns like checkerboard, herringbone, or cord designs. The terraces leaned inward to prevent collapse from gravity. Wooden poles were likely placed along the terraces for guards to hold as they walked along the high, steep walls.

History

Khami was the capital of the Torwa dynasty for about 200 years, starting around 1450. It was likely built when the state at Great Zimbabwe ended. In 1683, Changamire Dombo, who led an army of Rozvi rebels from the Mwenemutapa ("Monomotapa") State, conquered Khami. Archaeologists found that the site was not used after the Rozvi took control. The Rozvi later moved their capital to a new site called Danamombe (Dhlo-Dhlo). In the 1830s, Nguni-speaking Ndebele raiders forced the Rozvi to leave Khami and other places they had built.

The Khami site shows seven areas where the royal family lived, with open spaces in the valley where common people lived. The complex includes circular, sometimes terraced, artificial platforms surrounded by dry stone walls. A large, beautifully decorated retaining wall, 6 meters high and 68 meters long, runs along the edge of a platform. It has a checkerboard pattern across its full length. The platforms, which rise 2 to 7 meters above the ground, held dhaka (clay) huts and courtyards for people of lower status. Below the Hill Complex, remains of cattle kraals and huts for ordinary people can be seen. The ruins include a royal enclosure, or Hill Complex, which was built on higher ground than other structures, along with stone walls, hut platforms, and a Christian cross that may have been placed by a missionary. Other ruins are found on the eastern side of the Khami River. Some platforms are believed to have been used as cattle kraals, and a retaining wall with a chequered pattern is also present. Recent excavations from 2000 to 2006 showed that the western parts of the Hill Complex had walls decorated with checkerboard, herringbone, cord patterns, and varied stone blocks.

Conservation

In the early 2000s, the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe started a program to protect and document the stone walls. The program worked to preserve and repair the walls. Important successes include making the terrace walls on the Main, Cross, and North platforms stronger and repairing them. Between 2000 and 2007, people from the C.H.A.M association helped with the work.