The discovery in December, 1902, of what are believed to be traces of a line of small round towers on the outer edge of the summit immediately over the chevron pattern—and these are referred to later—affords very strong evidence as to what was the original height of the wall, and points to the limit of six courses above the chevron pattern. The line of small round towers (recently found to have been conical) on the outer edge of the west wall of the Western Temple on the Acropolis have their foundations a few inches below the present summit of the wall. The foundations of the towers on the wall at the Elliptical Temple, now being described, have their foundations on the present surface of the central ridge along the summit of the wall, but were the pattern made good at the height of the six courses alone, the positions of these foundations would be identical in several respects with those of the towers on the Acropolis. Thus these foundations provide a fourth important corroborative clue as to the original height of the wall.
Along the floor of the summit are laid some large, broad, but shallow slabs of granite of irregular form, while down below on either side were a score of others which have fallen off the wall. Bent suggested that the summit was once paved with these slabs. In view of the four proofs just adduced with regard to the original height of the wall being somewhat higher than is seen to-day, the purpose of the slabs could hardly be that of providing a pavement for the summit. Most probably they were the “ties” or “throughs” to bind the wall at its top courses, as invariably found near the summits of the best class of walls, especially so in all rounded ends of walls, summits of rounded buttresses, and in the Conical Tower where, near its summit, the back and inside ends of the blocks are frequently longer than in the lower courses where they are short. Many of these slabs on the main wall lie across the wall on its present surface, but these are frequently covered with laid blocks. The best instances at Zimbabwe of the “tying” and bonding of the highest courses of walls are to be seen on the Acropolis, but this feature is elsewhere in Rhodesia common in several ruins which are not built upon the angular principle. It is natural to suppose that, if the ancients not only carefully tied the upper courses of almost all walls with “throughs,” and also tied several points between base and summit, this main wall bearing the decorative pattern, and once having on its summit, as is now believed, both round towers and soapstone beams, the ancients, admittedly being skilful builders, would regard the effective tying and bonding of such a wall as an important necessity, especially as the wide and commodious summit was, as stated by Bent, in all probability a look-out and much-frequented elevation. The stones which are uncovered are decomposed and lichen-and moss-covered on their upper faces, but are on their under side as fresh and as clean as if they had just been brought from the quarry. Some visitors, supposing these tie-stones to have been fallen monoliths, have placed four of them in an upright position where they now stand, but unlike all true monoliths, they are not weathered or time-eaten all round, and two so erected have all their faces perfectly clean and fresh.