Khami

Khami is a ruined city about 22 kilometres west of Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, also written Khame, Kame or Kami. It was the capital of the Torwa dynasty and of the Kingdom of Butua for about 200 years from around 1450, and appears to have been founded when the state at Great Zimbabwe disappeared. The site developed the architectural form that emerged at Great Zimbabwe in the 13th century together with the local Leopard's Kopje culture, which built platforms of rough walling on which houses stood. Its laminar granite differs from the biotite stone found at other Zimbabwean sites. Khami is now a national monument and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986, and Zimbabwe's national museums have run a conservation programme on its walls.