To secure the batter of the walls the blocks are not slanted downwards at their inner side, but are laid on a true dead level reaching from face to face of the wall on either side, and in their outer courses their outside edges are placed back from the outer course below. So slightly do these courses recede one above another that in the height of only a few courses it would be almost impossible to detect the presence of any battering, while it is very decidedly noticeable in a height of some few feet. Bent’s estimate of the extent of the battering of walls at Zimbabwe, namely, 1 ft. in 6 ft., is fairly exact with regard to many of the walls, but excessive with regard to others, such as the main walls of the Elliptical Temple, while for many walls it is perfectly correct. The battering in most instances being more perceptible near base and summit than on the intermediate face of the wall, and the summits in many cases having disappeared, the batter-back, as ascertained by plumb lines, has consequently been considerably reduced. Where the original summits are still practically intact, and where there have been no bulging out of the faces of the walls, and the top courses on the edges do not lean outwards as they frequently do, on account of creeper and tree growths, the 1 ft. in 6 ft. is frequently approached, for instance, south wall _Western Temple_, 4 ft. 8 in. in 31 ft.; _Pattern Passage_, 2 ft. in 13 ft. In low walls 1 ft. in 6 ft. is very frequently reached. The main walls of the Elliptical Temple, as shown in the _Table of Battering_ (see _Elliptical Temple, Main Wall_, Chapter IX.), are much less than 1 ft. in 6 ft., a fair average for inside faces being 1 ft. in 11 ft., but at some points it is only 1 ft. in 15 ft., and for outside faces 1 ft. in 10 ft. and 1 ft. in 8 ft. (For the battering of the _Conical Towers_, see descriptions of those structures.) • • • • • _Monoliths._—In most of the ruins of both major and minor importance at Zimbabwe, numerous beams of slate and granite, varying from 4 ft. to 14 ft. in length, have been found, some of the slate beams showing signs of having been treated with tools. It has been the custom of many writers to call these beams “monoliths.” In the greater number of instances these beams can be shown never to have been employed as monoliths. So far, at Zimbabwe, authenticated monoliths have been discovered only at the Elliptical Temple, and the Eastern and Western Temples of the Acropolis and Philips Ruins. Many of the beams found in these buildings are not and never were employed as monoliths, and the greatest possible care has to be taken in discriminating between monoliths and ordinary beams.