Cecil Rhodes

Rhodes Hotel, Inyanga, Southern Rhodesia (circa 1950s)		Rhodes Nyanga Hotel, Zimbabwe (circa 1980s)

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The Rhodes Nyanga Hotel

NYANGA, ZIMBABWE

Set in manicured gardens with a verandah overlooking the Rhodes Dam and the typical Nyanga mountain scenery, with sweeping panoramas of the Nyanga National Park, the resort is the only hotel located in the Nyanga National Park. The Hotel is set in the heart of the National Park, the finest trout fishing locations in Zimbabwe. Cecil John Rhodes built the original cottage in 1896 (when he bought the old Fotheringhame’s homestead on Fruitfield Farm) and used it as his retreat and described it as a country of mountains and cliff walls, of water falls and solitudes and immensities, at a height of seven thousand feet above the sea, "Mr Rhodes built himself a retreat; and this was always his solitude where he preferred to think out his great schemes” (R N Hall F R G S 1905). In 1918 the Estate at Nyanga was delegated to the Department of Agriculture. Later still it was decided that the orchards should be leased from the Estate by the Ministry of Agriculture and run as a Horticultural Experiment Station. Other parts of the Estate are leased to the Forestry Commission and The Wattle Company, and farming operations were carried on until 1933. In that year it was decided to develop the area as a tourist resort. Rest camps were erected at various beauty spots and roads were built so that tourists could visit the different sites on the Estates. The original homestead on the Estate was modernized to form the present Rhodes Nyanga Hotel in 1933, about three decades after his death. On-site you can vist THE RHODES NYANGA HISTORICAL EXHIBITION. Give it about an hour to explore. Both the hotel and exhibition have a lot of Rhodes memorabilia to see.

Some related links: 1. National Trust of Zimbabwe -> Rhodes Nyanga Historical Exhibition (Rhodes Museum) 2. ZimFieldNGuide.com -> Rhodes Nyanga Historical Exhibition (Rhodes Museum)