MASVINGO Two years ago vervet monkeys were the main visitors crawling through Zimbabwe's royal ruins, but now tourists are returning in numbers in another sign of the nation's fledgling recovery.

Cars drawing trailers and motorbikes bearing foreign number plates queue up at the gates to Great Zimbabwe, the ancient site where Shona kings once held sway.

Zimbabwe's unity government, created last year, has stabilised the nation after decades of autocratic rule by President Robert Mugabe led to political and economic turmoil which in turn hit tourism numbers.

Now they're coming back.

Hazel Gallagher, who like many of those wandering Great Zimbabwe's sweeping granite corridors is from neighbouring South Africa, is among 30,000 visitors expected at the ruins this year.

“This time we have come with four other family friends,” she said, having already visited twice before. “The place is just amazing. How they managed to build this place still amazes me.” While this year's visitor estimate is more than double last year's number, it's still some way off the 120,000 who passed through the site in 1999, said Godfrey Mahachi, Zimbabwe's museums boss.

“Judging by the number of arrivals so far, this year is bound to be a better year,” Mahachi said.

“We are also expecting large numbers of visitors during and after the World Cup,” which kicks off on June 11 in neighbouring South Africa, he added.

The ruins are a World Heritage Site, with walls that soar up 20 metres (65 feet), swooping around a conical tower in the main structure where Shona kings ruled from the 12th to 16th centuries.

Their kingdom held sway over a trading empire that controlled nearby gold mines which was used in commerce with Arab traders, thus providing a link to countries as far away as India and China.

The name Zimbabwe means “great houses of stone” in Shona, inspired by the ruins which are a source of intense national pride.

“This is the biggest ancient structure in southern Africa,” noted Edward Chidawa, a tour guide at the site since 1995.

“Although Zimbabwe has had its fair share of troubles, this is the place to be for tourists and anybody who wants to learn about history of architecture.” Eight stone-carved birds, still of mysterious significance, were found at the site and are now a national emblem.

But the steady decline of tourist numbers between 1999 and last year meant maintenance suffered at Great Zimbabwe, which relies on entry fees to finance its small museum and preservation efforts.

“The resources we get through the payments for viewing the Great Zimbabwe are ploughed back into the conservation efforts,” Mahachi said.

“However, there is little you can do when you don't have significant arrivals,” he added, which has led to a number of restoration projects being shelved.

They included a plan to use a computer system to monitor for movements in the stone bricks, which are held together without mortar and thus susceptible to shifts over time, Mahachi said.

As tourists return, and with Zimbabwe now using the US dollar as its main currency, museum officials hope to get conservation efforts back on track, he added.

Hoteliers in the south-eastern city of Masvingo are also hoping their own fortunes will revive, as the ruins are the area's only major attraction.

Fredrick Kasese, CEO of the Regency Hotel Group which owns three locations in the city, said bookings in 2008 were at only 31 per cent of the year.

So far this year, bookings are at 41 per cent, and he expects a boost during the World Cup next month.

“The situation in the industry is shaping up quite nicely,” he told AFP.

“The perception out there has been that Zimbabwe is hostile, but there has been a paradigm shift over the past two years. The litmus test will be during the World Cup as we try to get more here.” Nationally, tourist arrivals in 2008 were at 223,000. The national parks agency says it has 100,000 bookings for lodges and safaris just for World Cup month - mainly from South Africans seeking to escape the crowds at home.

“This year the situation is far much better,” agreed Jama Ngulube, manager at Lodge at the Ancient City.—AFP