CHAPTER Y
ON THE ORIENTATION AND MEASUREMENTS OF
ZIMBABWE RUINS. B Y R. M. W. SWAN.
T h e form of nature worship which was practised at
Zimbabwe found one of its expressions in the worship
of the sun, and we have evidence of this cult in some
architectural features and decorations of the temples
themselves, and in the many images of the solar disc
which were found in the temples along with the other
symbols of the worship of reproductive power. It
was very natural that these two cults should be associated
together or merged in one, and it was common
to many early peoples to think of the sun in conjunction
with moisture as the great creator of all vegetable
fertility, for even the most casual observation would
show them that in the dark days of winter the vegetable
world seemed to sleep, and that it only awoke to
activity when the sun’s rays had become more powerful
and while the soil was still moistened by rain.
AH religions have their times and seasons for
special ceremonies of worship, and the appropriate
time for the greatest of these festivals of solar worship
would be at mid-summer, when the sun seemed most
brilliant and his rays most energetic. Accordingly
MAP OF
ZIMBABWE DISTRICT.
amm
F. S.W eller