Leaving the huts at Havilah Camp, which occupy a low granite knoll on the north side of the Shangani Grave and overlook the narrow valley running at the south foot of the hill, one crosses the outspan and passes through the “Outspan Ruins,”[58] which face the camp at a distance of 70 yds. due north, which ruins are part of an inner line of defence wall running round the base of the hill on the west, south, and east sides, and which lie within the main outer wall sweeping round from the west side of the Elliptical Temple to the north side of Zimbabwe Hill, enclosing the large water-holes believed to have been made by the ancients. From the ascent facing the camp a newly-cut path leads in a direct line up some 70 ft. higher towards the ancient approach, but with a slight trend to the east.
Before striking the walls of the passage-way, the path crosses at right angles the foundations of some seven or eight outer defence walls and walls of terraces and buried enclosures all rising in tiers one above and at the back of the other. The soil here is black with ash débris, and in cutting the rough steps in the path to the ascent, each shovelful of this black soil contained a large quantity of broken pottery and bones of animals. This débris on being examined shows most evidently that it is not ancient; further, it is pronounced by local natives to have been thrown out from the ruins above by previous generations of Makalanga, but not by the mediæval Makalanga, who, according to Portuguese records (1560 to 1750), occupied these ruins as one of the courts or chief residences of the succession of dynastic chiefs, each known as the Monomotapa or “The Lord of the Mines.” This débris is believed to cover that of the mediæval Makalanga and of the ancients, for all débris would by the formation of the cliff above be guided to this part of the lower southern slope, and the heavy downfalls of very many rainy seasons would distribute it over the steep face of the southern slope, and spread it into the valley, where any quantity of such débris may be found.
The path from the camp strikes the ancient ascent at 70 ft. above the valley. The length of the approach, measured in the centre of the passage in all its turnings, is 349 ft. from this point to its termination on the summit of the precipice. It extends in a westerly direction from the 70 ft. to the 210 ft. level on the hill. This passage can be traced downwards into the valley to clear of the end of the kopje for 420 yds.