Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare. It has the status of a province and its population is more than one million inhabitants. Bulawayo is an important industrial center. It is located next to the Matsheumhlope River in the southwest of the country. It has the largest museum in Zimbabwe, the Mzilikmzi Art and craft center, the Chipangali Wildlife Orphanage and the Khami Ruins. Matobo National Park is one of the main tourist attractions in the country. The name "Bulawayo" comes from the Ndebele language meaning place of sacrifice.
The city is in the place of the kraal of Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, and the Ndebele, an African ethnic group, founded Bulawayo in the middle of the 19th century. The British expelled the original population in 1893 and reached the rank of city in 1943.