When Europeans first encountered Great Zimbabwe in the 1870s, they refused to believe it was built by indigenous Africans and attributed it to Phoenicians, Arabs, or even the biblical Queen of Sheba. The colonial government of Rhodesia actively suppressed archaeological evidence that contradicted this, and archaeologists who concluded that Africans built it faced professional consequences. The dry-stone construction without mortar is also confirmed, over 900 years old still standing, built entirely from locally quarried granite shaped and stacked without binding material.