Khami

West of the Khami River, stone terraces rise above the Zimbabwean plateau. Their carefully laid retaining walls once supported the residences of the rulers of the Torwa state. The builders drew on traditions associated with Great Zimbabwe, but gave Khami a character of its own, with decorated walls and platforms overlooking the settlement below.

Khami grew into a capital in the fifteenth century, as Great Zimbabwe's power waned. The Torwa rulers commanded wealth in cattle and took part in networks of exchange that reached far beyond the plateau. Finds of Ming porcelain and Rhineland stoneware testify to goods arriving from distant lands, while Portuguese traders knew the kingdom as Butua. In the seventeenth century the centre of power shifted away from Khami; the Rozvi later established their authority in the region. The stone terraces remained as evidence of the generations who had built and inhabited the royal settlement.

The later city of Bulawayo lies here.