🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Ile-Ife
Yoruba Early/Middle Period (1st mill.–16th c; classical 12th–15th c) · Yoruba (Ifè)
Yoruba city producing hyper-naturalistic brass heads and potsherd pavements with unique locally-made High-Lime glass beads.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Earthwork
Benin City Walls (Iya)
Early to Late Edo Kingdom (800–1897 CE; peak 13th–16th c) · Edo (Bini) / Igodomigodo → Kingdom of Benin
16,000 km of ramparts and 20 m high ditch-bank earthworks enclosing 6,500 km² – world's longest pre-mechanical earthwork.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Benin City Earthwork Emotan Sector Moat Iya
Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) · Bronze Age
Benin City Earthwork Emotan Sector Moat Iya in Edo, Benin City, Nigeria is a Bronze Age (3000–1200 BCE) ancient city attributed to Bronze Age.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Zilum (Chad Basin Proto-city)
Iron Age Sahel / Nok contemporary (550–350 BCE) · Gajiganna culture
12-ha 550 BCE Gajiganna proto-city with 5-m ditch and early Sahelian iron furnace.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Earthwork
Ancient Kano City Walls
Hausa Kingdom of Kano to Sokoto (1095–1807 CE; peak 14th–18th c.) · Hausa (Kano)
Ancient Kano City Walls (Badala) are West Africa's most impressive earthwork: 14 km main wall, 10 m high with 40 m base and moat, plus outer and inner walls totalling 40 km, founded 1095 CE by…
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Surame
Late Medieval Hausa Banza Bakwai (15th–early 18th c. CE) · Hausa (Kabawa–Kebbi)
Surame (15th–16th c.) is the 9 km² walled capital of Muhammadu Kanta's Kebbi Empire (c. 1516), the sole Hausa Banza Bakwai state to defeat Songhai (Battle of Jebbe).
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Idanre Hills — Oke Idanre Cultural Landscape
Late Ife to Yoruba Oyo-Benin (1100–1928) · Yoruba Idanre (Udane)
Idanre Hills (Oke Idanre) is the hilltop abandoned Yoruba city 680 m above sea on Inselberg 3 km N of Idanre town, occupied 11th–1928 c.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Old Oyo (Oyo-Ile)
Yoruba Oyo Empire (14th–1835 CE; capital 16th–1835) · Yoruba (Oyo)
Old Oyo (Oyo-Ile, Katunga) is the 16th–19th c. capital of Oyo Empire, 10 km triple earthen walls enclosing 6,000 ha savanna plain with 17 palace compounds (Kobi), council houses and reservoirs.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Zaria City Walls
Early Kano to Sokoto (14th–19th c. CE; peak 16th–18th c.) · Hausa (Zazzau) / Fulani
Zaria City Walls (Birnin Zaria) are Hausa Kingdom of Zazzau's 14th-c. mud walls 14 km circuit encircling Zau Zau hill and Emir's palace, founded by Queen Amina legend but archaeologically Sarkin…
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient village
Daima (Lake Chad Mound)
Neolithic to Late Iron (1800 BCE–1500 CE) · Hadjer Lamis / Kotoko ancestral
3-m 115×85 m stratified mound establishing Chad Basin Neolithic-to-Iron sequence 1800 BCE–1500 CE.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Birnin Gazargamu
Late Medieval Kanem–Bornu (1460–1808 CE) · Kanuri (Kanem–Bornu)
Birnin Gazargamu (1460–1808) was Kanem–Bornu Empire capital, 6.5 km earthen walls 5 m high enclosing palace mound, great mosque 100×50 m and 200 compound mounds on Yo/ Kamadugu Yobe. 15th-c.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Fortress
Katsina Hillfort of Dutsin Ma
Medieval Hausa to Sokoto period (13th–19th c. CE) · Hausa (Katsina)
Granite inselberg hillfort south of Katsina with rock gongs.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Tell
Gazargamu Nguru Palaeolake Mound
Late Kanem-Bornu (15th–18th c. CE) · Kanuri (Bornu)
Lake-fishery satellite tell west of Bornu capital on Nguru fen fen.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Fortress
Gobir Citadel of Gidan Sabon Birni
Sokoto period (19th c. CE; Gobir resistance) · Hausa (Gobir)
Late Gobir fortified birni (4.2 km) after 1808 fall of Al Kalawa.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Ancient city
Katsina City and Kusugu Well
Hausa Late Iron Age to Sultanate (c.1100 CE–present) · Hausa (Katsinawa)
Hausa walled city (14 km walls, 7 gates) with Gobarau Minaret and Kusugu well legend.
🇳🇬 Nigeria · Fortified city
Katsina City Walls – 14 km Runded Earthwork
Hausa classical (c. 1100–1807 CE; Ganuwa built 13th–14th c) · Hausa (Katsina scholarly centre)
Seven-gate 14 km mud rampart enclosing 405 ha Hausa scholarly city of Gobarau minaret (14th c mudbrick tower 15 m, oldest multi-storey mud in West Africa), manuscript libraries and...