Bulawayo

Bulawayo, 'the City of Kings', is Zimbabwe's second largest city and lies halfway between Beitbridge on the southern border and Victoria Falls in the north.

Built on the site of the royal kraal of the last of the fabled Ndebele kings, Bulawayo is an attractive city laid out on a grid of streets designed to be wide enough to turn a wagon team of sixteen oxen. Bulawayo looks deceptively small because of the lack of high-rise buildings, which gives it a provincial feel. A legacy of its colonial past, many elegant colonial buildings survive including the City Hall, High Court and Railway Station. The Bulawayo Club, founded in 1895, occupies one such striking building, and has been lovingly renovated. Bulawayo is home to the National Museum, and visits to the Art Gallery and Railway Museum are also highly recommended.

Within the vicinity of Bulawayo are the Khami Ruins, the spectacular Matobo Hills where Cecil John Rhodes and King Mzilikazi are buried, and Matobo National Park, the oldest national park in Zimbabwe.