Great Zimbabwe Ruins Entry way

Original caption reads, "Great Zimbabwe Ruins, entry way. - These ruins, from which the country took its name at the time of independence in 1981, were built by an empire that flourished around 1400 a.d. The ruins are ample evidence of a kind required by the traditional European historian to deem a culture "advanced" or "civilized" (cut stone, complex, mortar-free dwellings to house a far-reaching empire over centuries). However, since their very existence contradicts the particular stereotypes that were used to justify colonialism, willing historians sought to find architects of the ruins other than the local Shona population (Phoenicians, for example), thus challenging the structures' significance as indigenous cultural monuments. Until very recently, their origins were referred to as "mysterious" or "controversial" by some. However, incontrovertible scientific evidence that has been accumulated since the turn of the century places the ruins directly in the historic continuum of the region and its people and is symbolic vindication for the majority population of Zimbabwe as well as for greater Africa."