Guruguru Mountain is a solid dome-shaped volcanic rock in

Shurugwi Shurugwi, formerly Selukwe, is a small town and administrative centre in Midlands Province, southern Zimbabwe, located about 350 km (220 miles) south of Harare, with a population of 22,900 according to the 2022 census. The town was establ ...

Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and Mozam ...

, near Pakame Mission. ''Guruguru'', its

Shona Shona often refers to: * Shona people, a Southern African people * Shona language, a Bantu language spoken by Shona people today Shona may also refer to: * ''Shona'' (album), 1994 album by New Zealand singer Shona Laing * Shona (given name) * S ...

name, and ''Nkulunkulu'', its

Ndebele Ndebele may refer to: *Southern Ndebele people, located in South Africa *Northern Ndebele people, located in Zimbabwe and Botswana Languages *Southern Ndebele language, the language of the South Ndebele *Northern Ndebele language, the language o ...

name, both mean "the biggest". It is by far the highest mountain in the

Shurugwi Rural Areas Shurugwi Rural Areas, also known as Shurugwi District, is a rural area around Shurugwi, Zimbabwe, mainly to the east, beginning from the town centre. The area between the town and the rural areas was mainly occupied by white commercial farmers. It ...

and the

Midlands Province Midlands is a province of Zimbabwe. It has an area of and a population of 1,614,941 (2012). It is home to various peoples. Located at a central point in the country, it contains speakers of Shona, Ndebele, Tswana, Sotho and Chewa, as well as of ...

of Zimbabwe. Guruguru is a solid rock mountain formed when a

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

eruption pushed lava up through a central core. It has a radius of over three kilometers and a height of over 500 meters. There is a spring of water at its summit. Little vegetation grows on the mountain except near the base. It is seen as a great symbol by the locals; some worshippers go to the mountain to pray, and there is also a local church that baptizes its members in the water from the spring. Tradition holds that certain people can consult their ancestors at the mountain. For many years the cadet pilots in the RRAF (Royal Rhodesian Air Force) would climb it to paint their course number on the top. The tradition was that each course had to paint it twice the size of the previous course's number. For many years they could be read from miles away. It is under Chief Mpakami's jurisdiction.

References

{{Reflist Mountains of Zimbabwe Geography of Midlands Province