ZIMBABWE: One mystery surrounding the earliest city in southern Africa appears to have been solved. Great Zimbabwe, from which the modern country takes its name, flourished from the 12th to 15th century A.D. as the capital of the Kingdom of Zimbabwe. Given the area’s susceptibility to drought, scholars have wondered how the city’s inhabitants were able to obtain enough water to sustain themselves. A new survey uncovered a series of depressions outside the city called dhaka pits that were used to store water in the dry season as part of an ingenious water management system.