Mazowe River

BW

Template: Infobox River / Obsolete

Mazowe means " River of the Elephant ". This river, to 1980 Mazoe, rises in Zimbabwe in the province Zentralmaschonaland north of Harare, and is soon followed by Mazoe Dam (position 17.52140530.988626 ) jammed for Mazowe Lake. As the reservoirs Chiveo and Manyame of Hunyani he is a popular tourist destination. Since 1936 there exists a sailing club.

The river is the only navigable in Zimbabwe. On it, chrome ore is transported from Harare to Mozambique on the Zambezi River, in the Mazowe leads after 400 km. Although the flow sufficiently supplied with water and is dammed by numerous dams in the upper reaches, there are distribution problems. Through him much land is irrigated, especially citrus fruit plantations.

The Mazowetal is of historical importance. Since the 15th century (The type 11th century, however, is doubtful. ) Here was the center of a successor state of Great Zimbabwe, the Munhumutapa Empire of the Karanga. The state controlled and the gold trade to the coast. One of the main chief seats was Massapa in Mazowetal next Chicanga in the highlands of Inyanga (now Nyanga National Park ) and Quiteve in the lowlands of Mozambique. In contrast to the more southerly of the Shonastaaten this state left no stone representative, only small stone hill forts.

Interesting in Mazowetal are for the old irrigation systems that were found neither Arabs nor Europeans are affected and also in the south of Zimbabwe. This system consists of ditches along the mountain slopes, the slope is calculated on the most exact. They dig even more than the ruins of Zimbabwe requires an extensive social organization with a significant number of workers, as they irrigate the Mazowetal of Inyanga to the Zambezi.

1569 the Portuguese sent a military expedition into the territory of Mutapa, but failed. But they succeeded henceforth to control the gold trade. It was only in the early 17th century, they were able to capture the chief areas of Karanga including Mutapa with native soldiers. There were build small Portuguese settlements, one of which is the most important Dambarare in the upper Mazowetal.