Harare is Zimbabwe's largest city and its administrative, commercial, and communications center. It has a mild climate and is the trade center for an agricultural region .
Main products
are tobacco, corn, cotton, and citrus fruits.
Manufactures
include textiles, clothing, processed food and tobacco, beverages, steel, chemicals, furniture, fertilizers, and construction materials.
Gold is mined in the area.
Harare is connected by rail with Bulawayo, in SW Zimbabwe. The city was founded in 1890 as a fort by the Pioneer Column, a mercenary force organized by Cecil J. Rhodes to seize Mashonaland. The city was originally named Salisbury after the 3d marquess of Salisbury, then British prime minister. It became a municipality in 1897 and a city in 1935. Salisbury was the capital of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (1953-63). After World war II the population grew as many people migrated to the city. After Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980, the name of the city was changed to Harare.
There is a strong appreciation for the city's cultural and historical heritage and a number of the older buildings have been preserved. The Mining Pension Fund Building at Central Avenue and Second Street is one example and many more are to be found along Robert Mugabe Road between Second Street and Julius Nyerere Way.
The National Gallery houses not only a valuable and interesting national collection but also hosts travelling international exhibitions and has a permanent display of some outstanding Shona soft-stone carvings.
The priceless collection of Rhodesiana and Africana in the form of diaries, notebooks and reports of various origins, are housed in the National Archives. Some of the original works of some of the greatest names in African exploration and missionary can be viewed.
Other institutions which are well worth visiting include the Queen Victoria Museum and the Queen Victoria National Library, both at the Civic Centre; in Rotten Row.
The city was laid out with large open spaces like the 68ha National Botanic Garden with more than 900 species of wild trees and shrubs from all over the country. The Mukuvisi Woodlands
is 277 hectares of remarkably preserved natural woodland that stances astride the banks of the small Mukuvisi stream.
A variety of bird and of wild animal species such as giraffe, zebra, impala, tsessche, wildebeest, bushbuck, steenbuck, reed buck and eland can be viewed.
If you want to experience shopping the way it is traditionally done in many African countries, you need to stroll around at the open flea-market at Mbare. Here tourists can feast their eyes on a colourful array of baskets, food, clothing and other items.
You can find it all here—vegetables, plumbing supplies, thumb pianos, ceremonial herbs.
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