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History: These ruins are related to the Zimbabwe culture and are of great scientific importance.
Visual Description: The ruins that have so far attracted the most scientific attention and excited the imagination of the public are situated on a hill called Machemmakop on the farm Solvent about 20 kilometres northwest of Waterpoort railway station. The station is due north of the Soutpans berg and 27 kilometres west of Wyllie’s Poort. The settlement on the koppie was the Chief’s strong hold, while the ordinary members of the tribe lived in the valleys to the north and south. Dr. J. B. de Vaal has called it ‘a Zimbabwe of the Soutpansberg’ and it does indeed show several features also found at Zimbabwe. The top of the koppie was ringed by a stone wall, except where the steep cliffs made such protection unnecessary. Within this wall was the Chief’s kraal, enclosed by a more or less circular curtain wall with a funnel-like exit to the west. A short distance from this exit there was a conical tower, the remains of which may still be seen. To the east, outside the kraal walls, were the middens and the thre Inside the kraal, on the western side, a maze of walls formed smaller kraals. The outermost western enclosure must have been the meeting-hall or Khoro or Ghotla, since it has a raised platform of clay and there are monoliths on the wall, of the kind that are known to have served as back- rests for the councillors. The clay platform was probably the official seat of the Chief and fulfilled the same purpose as the niches in the walls in other Venda kraals.
Many of the walls of the western part of the kraal have collapsed, but those that remain present interesting herring-bone, chequer-board and oblique patterns. In most cases the patterns occur in comparatively short lengths of walling, but they provide indisputable evidence of relationship with the ruins of Zimbabwe.
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