What it is
The ruins of a large settlement near Masvingo, built by ancestors of the Shona. Granite blocks were split, dressed and stacked without mortar into walls up to 11 m high. The Great Enclosure is the largest ancient structure south of the Sahara. The site was the centre of a trading state that dealt in gold and cattle and reached the Indian Ocean coast.
Why go
It answers a question most visitors do not know they are carrying: what was here before Europeans arrived. Colonial authorities spent decades insisting Africans could not have built it, and that argument is part of the story a good guide will tell. Allow half a day with a guide rather than an hour on your own.
When to go
Any month. May to August is dry and cool for the climb up to the Hill Complex. It is roughly four hours by road from either Bulawayo or Harare and well off the main tourist circuit, so it is normally added to a trip that is already moving by road, not by air.
Most people stay 1-2 nights.