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The oldest mission in Zimbabwe is Inyati, founded by the London Missionary Society in December 1859, about 60 km north-east of Bulawayo. Other early colonial-era sites you can still visit include Hope Fountain Mission near Bulawayo, the 1890s Bell Tower and Curfew Tower of Fort Victoria in Masvingo, the Pioneer Column’s fort at Tuli, and Cecil Rhodes’s grave at World’s View in the Matobo Hills. Written by Bryan Fawcett.
Last reviewed: 25 October 2026 against National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ) pages and its online ticket shop, the Zimbabwe Field Guide, Global Press Journal and Sowetan reporting on Rhodes’s grave. Full list under Sources.

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Why visit, and how to see them

These places record the arrival of missionaries, traders and then the British South Africa Company (BSAC), whose Pioneer Column occupied the country in 1890. They are part of Zimbabwe’s colonial history, with all its violence and dispossession, and several of them are still contested today. We describe them as they are, so you can visit with context. See our Historic sites overview for the wider picture.

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Inyati Mission (1859)

On 26 December 1859 a party of London Missionary Society (LMS) wagons reached Inyati, on land granted by King Mzilikazi. The party included Robert Moffat, who had known Mzilikazi since 1829, his son John Moffat, William Sykes and Thomas Morgan Thomas. Mzilikazi allowed the mission, but the missionaries made few converts in the early years and often served as translators for Mzilikazi and, later, Lobengula.
  • What to see: the red-brick church. According to the Zimbabwe Field Guide, this church was built after 1893, on a cornerstone cut from rock at Ntabazinduna, and was finished just before the 1896 uprising. The mission’s earlier buildings had been burned. Inyathi High School, owned by the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa, grew from a mission school started in 1921.
  • Status: National Monument No. 97, according to the Zimbabwe Field Guide. The mission is still in use, so arrange your visit in advance and respect services and school hours.
  • Getting there: take Robert Mugabe Way (the Harare road) out of Bulawayo. The Zimbabwe Field Guide puts the turn-off east to Inyati at 44 km from the airport turn-off. Cross the Ingwingwisi River at 50 km and turn left for the mission at 52 km.

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Hope Fountain Mission (1870)

The LMS’s second station in Matabeleland. Lobengula granted the land on 16 November 1870, and the Rev. John Boden Thomson set up the mission near the king’s new capital.
  • What to see: a simple church with a corrugated-iron roof, which replaced the original thatched church after it burned in a lightning strike. The cemetery has the graves of missionaries and teachers, including Charles and Elsbeth Helm. On the hill above is Hope Fountain Fort, an earthwork built in 1896.
  • Condition: the Zimbabwe Field Guide describes the mission as “somewhat rundown”. It is an active mission with a girls’ school.
  • Getting there: leave Bulawayo on the Esigodini road and turn right onto Hope Fountain Road. After about 6 km the tar ends at the girls’ school entrance. Turn right and follow the dirt road downhill for 700 m to the church. You can also reach it on Burnside Road, which becomes Douglasdale Road.
Hope Fountain lies south of Bulawayo in the same direction as Old Bulawayo, Lobengula’s first capital, so you can combine the two.

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Fort Victoria, Masvingo

Masvingo was called Fort Victoria in the colonial era. The Pioneer Column’s troops began the first fort in August 1890, about 7 km south of today’s town. It soon fell into disrepair, and because water was short the settlement moved to its present site, between the Mucheke and Shagashi rivers, in early 1892. Two parts of the later fort survive in the town centre:
  • Bell Tower: built by the BSAC in 1892 as part of the fort. It stands on the north corner of Robert Mugabe Street and Leopold Takawira Avenue, near the post office.
  • Curfew Tower: built in 1893 as an extension of the fort and declared a National Monument in 1938. It is about 100 metres north-west of the Bell Tower, on Hughes Street. A curfew bell was rung from it every evening at 9pm.
The Curfew Tower is behind the District Administrator’s gate. The Zimbabwe Field Guide’s author could not get in and was told the key is kept at the Great Zimbabwe site museum. Ask at the museum or the Masvingo publicity office before you go. Hughes Street was one of the roads renamed by Statutory Instrument 167 of 2020, so local signs may differ.
See our Masvingo guide and Great Zimbabwe guide.

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Italian Chapel, Masvingo

About 4 km east of Masvingo, this chapel was built between 1942 and 1946 by Italian prisoners of war during the Second World War. NMMZ lists it among the heritage sites of the Masvingo region.

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Fort Tuli

Fort Tuli was the Pioneer Column’s base on the Shashe River, close to today’s border with Botswana. It was built in July 1890 by the Pioneer Column and A Troop of the BSAC Police, and the column crossed the Shashe here into what is now Zimbabwe on 11 July 1890. Until 1893 it was the main way into the country. The fort declined after the railway reached Bulawayo in 1897 and was used again during the South African War of 1899 to 1902.
  • What to see: the 1890 pentagonal fort on a hill, trenches and gun positions from 1899 just to the north, and the pioneer cemetery, with about 25 graves.
  • Status: National Monument No. 94, according to the Zimbabwe Field Guide.
  • Getting there: about 135 km from Bulawayo, via Gwanda and the Guyu road, to the national parks office. The tar ends at Guyu. Crossing the Shashe River involves about 600 m of sand and needs a 4x4.
  • Hours and fees: the Zimbabwe Field Guide lists the site as open every day, 6am to 6pm. The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) charges an entry fee. Check in at the parks office.
  • Where to stay: there are campsites at the parks office and in the safari area, but no hotels.

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Rhodes’s grave at World’s View, Matobo

Cecil John Rhodes, the British mining magnate and politician whose British South Africa Company colonised the country, died near Cape Town in March 1902. As his will asked, he was buried in April 1902 on the granite dome he had named World’s View, in the Matobo Hills, about 40 km south of Bulawayo. Also buried on the summit are Leander Starr Jameson, Charles Coghlan (the first premier of Southern Rhodesia), and Allan Wilson and the members of the Shangani Patrol killed in 1893. Below the graves stands the Shangani Memorial, erected in 1904.

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A sacred hill and a contested grave

The hill is known locally as Malindidzimu (also spelled Malindadzimu), a Kalanga name usually translated as the place where the spirits rest. It is sacred to many local people, and the Matobo Hills became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003 partly for their spiritual importance. For many Zimbabweans, a colonist’s grave on a sacred hill is offensive, and calls to exhume Rhodes have been made since the early 1980s, according to historian Pathisa Nyathi. In 2020 activists, including the Zimbabwe Heritage Trust, campaigned for exhumation. In December 2021 President Emmerson Mnangagwa told traditional leaders that Rhodes’s remains “must be returned to where he hailed from”, in exchange for ancestral remains held in Europe. Others argue that the grave is part of the country’s history and an important tourist attraction. NMMZ, which is legally responsible for the grave, called exhumation “reactive” in 2020. As of October 2026, we have found no report that an exhumation has been ordered, and the grave remains in place.

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Visiting

  • Fees: NMMZ charges for the grave site on top of the ZimParks fee for Matobo National Park. NMMZ’s online shop lists “Matopo” at US$10 for non-resident adults, US$5 for non-resident children, US$4 for local adults and US$1 for local children.
  • Getting there: World’s View is signposted inside Matobo National Park. The graves are a short walk up the granite from the car park.
  • Time needed: 1 to 2 hours. It is popular at sunset, so check the park’s closing time.
For views, photography and walking tips, see our World’s View, Matobo guide and the Matobo Hills guide.

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Tips

  • Missions are working communities. Ask permission before visiting a church or school, and dress modestly.
  • Take a local guide for Fort Tuli, and confirm road conditions before you drive.
  • Bulawayo’s Railway Museum displays the railway coach that carried Rhodes’s coffin north in 1902.

Historic sites

Colonial buildings

Old Bulawayo

Zimbabwe history timeline

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Sources

Last modified on October 25, 2026