Career
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. Born in Germany in 1822, Render 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 fought with them against the British at the Battle of Boomplaats in 1848.
The same year Render settled in Zoutpansberg in the north-east of the Transvaal.
During one of his big-game hunting trips north of the river in 1867, he inadvertently came across the ruins of Great Zimbabwe, an ancient walled city that had been abandoned for centuries. Scholarly consensus records him as the first white man to see this place.
He apparently made little effort to report his discovery of Great Zimbabwe to other Westerners. Continuing to informally explore the region, he found a number of ancient gold mines.
In 1871, Render 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 Render for nine months, making a number of study excursions to the ruins during that time. In stark contrast to Render, 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 cr for finding lieutenant
Render died in obscurity in 1881.
Great Zimbabwe has been marked by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as a World Heritage Site since 1986.