{{Short description|German-American hunter, prospector and trader in Africa}} {{Use South African English|date=November 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2026}} [[File:Great-Zimbabwe-4.jpg|thumb|Part of Great Zimbabwe]] '''Adam Stanley Renders''' (surname often recorded as '''Render'''; 1822–1881) was a German-American hunter, prospector and trader in southern Africa who is generally recorded as the first European to see the medieval city of Great Zimbabwe, having inadvertently come across the ruins while hunting big game in 1867. He subsequently guided the explorer and geographer Karl Mauch during the first archaeological expedition to the site in 1871, and also discovered prehistoric gold mines in the region.
==Biography== Born in Germany in 1822, Renders lived in the United States from early childhood until about 1842, when he emigrated to Natal in South Africa. He joined the Boer Voortrekkers and allegedly fought with them against the British at the Battle of Boomplaats in 1848. The same year Renders is believed to have settled in Zoutpansberg in the north-east of the Transvaal.<ref name=potgieter>{{cite book |title=Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa. ''Volume 9'' |editor-last=Potgieter |editor-first=D J |year=1973 |publisher=NASOU |location=Cape Town |oclc=320549661 |page=287}}</ref> He married Willem Andries Petrus Pretorius's daughter Elsje Magdalina Josina Pretorius, and hunted and traded on both sides of the Limpopo River. During one of his big-game hunting trips north of the river in 1867, he inadvertently came across the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, a medieval walled city that had been abandoned for centuries; scholarly consensus records him as the first white man to see this place.<ref>{{cite book |title=Southern African Dictionary of National Biography |last=Rosenthal |first=Eric |authorlink=Eric Rosenthal (historian and author) |year=1966 |publisher=Frederick Warne |location=London |oclc=390499 |page=308}}</ref><ref name=hepburn/><ref name=duignangann/><ref name=hill31/>
Renders deserted his wife and 4 children (Helena Barendina Norbetta Renders 1863–1889, Jan Adam Renders 1864–?, Willem Andries Petrus Renders 1866–1943 and Hendrik Jacobus Renders 1869–1947) in 1868 following a series of quarrels. He relocated north of the Limpopo and "went native", living about {{convert|20|km}} south-east of Great Zimbabwe with the daughter of a local chief for the rest of his life.<ref name=hepburn>{{cite journal |title=European Pre-pioneers, 1500–1890 |last=Hepburn |first=E T |journal=Rhodesiana |location=Salisbury |publisher=The Rhodesiana Society |date=December 1973 |issue=29 |pages=38–45}}</ref> He apparently made little effort to report his discovery of Great Zimbabwe to other Westerners.<ref name=hill31>{{cite book |title=The Battle for Zimbabwe: The Final Countdown |last=Hill |first=Geoff |location=Johannesburg |publisher=Struik Publishers |year=2005|orig-date=2003 |isbn=978-1868726523 |page=31}}</ref> Continuing to informally explore the region, he found a number of ancient gold mines.<ref name=duignangann>{{cite book |title=The United States and Africa: A History |last1=Duignan |first1=Peter |last2=Gann |first2=L H |date=April 1987 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge
|isbn=978-0521335713 |pages=156–157}}</ref>
In 1871, Renders hosted the German explorer and geographer Karl Mauch, who had heard of Great Zimbabwe and come to the area hoping to make the first archaeological study. Mauch stayed with Renders for nine months, making a number of study excursions to the ruins during that time.<ref name=matenga>{{cite book |title=The Soapstone Birds of Great Zimbabwe: Symbols of a Nation |last=Matenga |first=Edward |date=October 1998 |edition=First |location=Harare |publisher=African Publishing Group |isbn=978-1779011350 |page=4}}</ref> In stark contrast to Renders, Mauch sent flamboyant descriptions of the site to the overseas press, claiming that the site was a replica of Solomon's Temple and that he had found the land of Ophir described in the Bible. As the first Westerner to report on Great Zimbabwe, it was Mauch who received most of the credit for finding it.<ref name=hill31/> Renders died in obscurity in 1881.<ref name=matenga/>
Great Zimbabwe has been marked by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site since 1988.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/364 |title=Great Zimbabwe National Monument |publisher=UNESCO |accessdate=7 November 2013}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Render, Adam}} Category:1822 births Category:1881 deaths Category:19th-century American businesspeople Category:19th-century American explorers Category:Emigrants from the German Confederation to the United States Category:Immigrants to the Colony of Natal Category:Great Zimbabwe Category:American hunters Category:American gold prospectors Category:19th-century German explorers