Interesting Facts:

1. Between 1100 to 1450 AD, the Great Zimbabwean ancient city was built. It is after these UNESCO recognized ruins and stone structures that the country came to be named.

2. There was a point of time during which the country was accepting 8 currencies as legal tender. This included the US Dollar, Australian Dollar, British Pound Sterling, Chinese Yuan, etc. However, the use of foreign currencies for local transactions was stopped by a government decree in 2019, now bringing the Zimbabwean Dollar to use.

3. It also has the highest number of official languages in the globe! That’s 16 languages, ladies and gentlemen.

4. It is also home to the Victorian Waterfalls along with Zambia. The falls are some of the biggest in the world and the absolute biggest in the category of single sheet waterfalls. In Zimbabwe, the locals say that you can hear the sounds of the water gushing till a distance of 40kms!

6. The world’s largest man-made lake is called Kariba and just like the above falls, this wonderful vast gem is also shared at the border between the 2 countries.

7. The locals believe that Lake Kariba is the home of river God Nyami Nyami who is a 3 metres wide serpent with an unimaginable length. The construction of the dam had actually received much concern from the Tonga tribe who cited an expectation of the snake god’s fury for the dam would part him from his wife who lived on the other end of the rock. However, this was laughed off by the city folk. But over the decades of its construction, the building of the dam was stopped time an again due to flooding, deadly storms and even an unprecedented cyclone! It actually saw the grave loss of 80 lives. While today the dam has been built, they say that when the serpent god misses his wife, his fury shakes the nearby villages!

8. As per Zimbabweans a man with a big belly indicates that he is wealthy because he can eat meat every day! My belly and my bank account starkly contradict this notion but oh well ?

9. Myth has it that this country is the biblical land known as Ophir where King Solomon received precious items such as ivory and gold.

10. In fact, it is said to have some of the highest reserves of diamond and platinum in the world!

11. It is one of the more advanced nations in the continent of Africa and accounts for about 90% of its population being educated.

12. Overall, it even has a young population with an average age of 21 years. Unfortunately, its life expectancy is shockingly poor with an average of 37 and 34 years for men and women respectively.

13. Customarily polygamous marriages are permitted. But this is permitted only to black Zimbabweans in the country.

14.The country strongly believes in the myth of mermaids. Before you picture Disney’s adorable Ariel, I’m going to break it to you that actually Zimbabweans fear mermaids! Few years back two crucial infrastructure projects for reservoirs had come to a standstill due to the fear that the water had mermaids who would murder people! Strangely, it was said that the only way to appease them was to brew traditional beer and perform rites. Ah, well, I guess we all need a chilled one in the summer heat!

15. It is illegal to sell products bearing the colours of the national flag.

16. Meanwhile, their national anthem was actually originally a song sung competitively by school choirs!