Zimbabwe's city of kings — wide streets and wild art
Bulawayo is Zimbabwe's second city and its most livable — a city of wide colonial avenues (built wide enough to turn an ox-wagon), vibrant street art, and the National Museum of Zimbabwe holding treasures from Great Zimbabwe. It sits at the doorstep of Matobo National Park, where San rock paintings cover the hills and Cecil Rhodes is buried among the granite boulders.
Bulawayo was established in 1893 on the site of King Lobengula's royal kraal after the British South Africa Company's forces defeated the Ndebele kingdom. The name means 'place of slaughter' in Ndebele — a testament to the violent wars fought here. The city became Matabeleland's commercial centre, and its wide streets (literally wide enough for a full ox-wagon team to turn) remain one of Africa's most distinctive urban layouts.