When Cecil John Rhodes scaled a granite peak in what was then Matoppos in 1896 he dubbed it View of the World and chose it as his final resting place. That name lasts today, as does his surprisingly modest grave.

It took weeks to hew from the rock, the burial place of perhaps the most divisive figure in colonial Africa. Cursed or celebrated for the scale of his crusade to “save Africa from itself”, he chose the simplest of epitaphs — “Here lie the remains of Cecil John Rhodes” — for his tomb overlooking the choppy hills and wild African bush of what is now Matobo National Park, southwestern Zimbabwe.

Cecil Rhodes picked out his own final resting place in Matobo National Park JOKER/WALTER G ALLGÖWER/GETTY IMAGES

The local Ndebele people know this spot as Malindidzimu — “the dwelling place of the